Calculation of the mean differential group delay of periodically spun, randomly birefringent fibers.

Spinning is one of the most effective and well-known ways to reduce polarization mode dispersion of optical fibers. In spite of the popularity of spinning, a detailed theory of spin effects is still lacking. We report an analytical expression for the mean differential group delay of a randomly birefringent spun fiber. The result holds for any periodic spin function with a period shorter than the fiber's beat length.