Measurement error analysis for polarization extinction ratio of multifunctional integrated optic chips

Measurement error for the polarization extinction ratio (PER) of a multifunctional integrated optic chip (MFIOC) utilizing white light interferometry was analyzed. Three influence factors derived from the all-fiber device (or optical circuit) under test were demonstrated to be the main error sources, including: 1) the axis-alignment angle (AA) of the connection point between the extended polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) and the chip PMF pigtail; 2) the oriented angle (OA) of the linear polarizer; and 3) the birefringence dispersion of PMF and the MFIOC chip. Theoretical calculations and experimental results indicated that by controlling the AA range within 0°±5°, the OA range within 45°±2° and combining with dispersion compensation process, the maximal PER measurement error can be limited to under 1.4 dB, with the 3σ uncertainty of 0.3 dB. The variations of birefringence dispersion effect versus PMF length were also discussed to further confirm the validity of dispersion compensation. A MFIOC with the PER of ∼50 dB was experimentally tested, and the total measurement error was calculated to be ∼0.7 dB, which proved the effectiveness of the proposed error reduction methods. We believe that these methods are able to facilitate high-accuracy PER measurement.