Characterizing short dispersion-length fiber via dispersive virtual reference interferometry.

The ability to characterize fibers with near-zero dispersion-length products is of considerable practical interest. We introduce dispersive virtual reference interferometry (DVRI) as a technique for the characterization of short length (<1m) fibers with near-zero disperison-length. DVRI has an accuracy equivalent to standard balanced spectral interferometry (on the order of 10(−3) ps and 10(−5) ps/nm for the group delay and dispersion-length measurements respectively) but does not require wide spectral bandwidths or multiple spectral scans.

Simultaneous dispersion measurements of multiple fiber modes using virtual reference interferometry.

We present the simultaneous measurement of first and second order dispersion in short length (< 1 m) few mode fibers (polarization and transverse) using virtual reference interferometry. This technique generates results equivalent to balanced spectral interferometry, without the complexity associated with physical balancing. This is achieved by simulating a virtual reference with a group delay equal to that of the physical interferometer.

Chromatic dispersion measurements using a virtually referenced interferometer.

We present a technique for measuring the chromatic dispersion of short-length (<1 m) optical devices using unbalanced spectral interferometry and a virtual reference path. The technique combines the speed and ease of measurement of unbalanced spectral interferometry with the accuracy of balanced spectral interferometry. We demonstrate measurement accuracy for group delay and the dispersion-length product of ~10(-3) ps/m (<0.

Single-arm three-wave interferometer for measuring dispersion of short lengths of fiber.

We present a simple fiber-based single-arm spectral interferometer to measure directly the second-order dispersion parameter of short lengths of fiber (< 50 cm). The standard deviation of the measured dispersion on a 39.5-cm-long SMF28(TM) fiber is 1x10(-4) ps/nm, corresponding to 1% relative error, without employing any curve fitting.