Spectral domain measurement of beat length in polarization maintaining fibers

A spectral white-light interferometric (WLI) method for measuring the beat length in high birefringence polarization-maintaining fibers (PMFs) is presented. The approach is based on the stress-induced polarization mode coupling between the two polarization eigenmodes and utilizes their spectral interferograms. By recording the spectral interferograms before and after the displacement of the force, the beat length can be obtained by the displacement of the force and the relative phase variation r