Single-polarization Fibers
Author: the photonics expert Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta (RP)
Definition: optical fibers which transmit only light with a certain polarization
Alternative term: polarizing fibers
More general term: optical fibers
Category:
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DOI: 10.61835/7bx Cite the article: BibTex plain textHTML Link to this page! LinkedIn
Single-polarization fibers (also called polarizing fibers) are specialty optical fibers which can transmit light with a certain linear polarization direction, whereas light with the other polarization direction is either not guided or at least experiences strong optical propagation losses. Such fibers should not be confused with polarization-maintaining fibers, which guide light with any polarization state, but can preserve a linear polarization state when the polarization direction is properly aligned with the birefringence axis.
In many cases, single-polarization guidance occurs in only a limited wavelength range. Outside that range, both polarization directions or no light at all may be guided. Also, some fibers exhibit a limited extinction ratio.
Operation Principles for Single-mode Guidance
Different principles of operation can be utilized for single-polarization fibers, which generally involve the generation of strong birefringence with some kind of design asymmetry. One obtains a polarization dependence of the cut-off wavelength, so that only light with one polarization direction is guided, whereas the fiber is a leaky waveguide for the other polarization. In any case, the strong birefringence also serves to reduce the coupling of the two polarization directions, and thus excessive loss for the wanted polarization state.
A common approach is the use an elliptical fiber core. Alternatively or in addition, the rotational symmetry may be broken by structures around the fiber core, such as air holes on two sides (side-hole fibers, hole-assisted fibers), or a bow-tie geometry. Some built-in mechanical stress is often utilized.
There are also various types of single-polarization photonic crystal fibers. Here, a suitable arrangement of microscopic air holes breaks the rotational symmetry and introduces polarization-dependent guiding properties.
Generally, the required fabrication techniques are more sophisticated than for standard fibers or polarization-maintaining fibers, leading to higher cost. The propagation losses may also be higher than in standard fibers.
Applications
Used in fiber lasers, single-polarization fibers guarantee polarized laser emission. There are also various uses in the field of fiber-optic sensors, where polarization effects in standard fibers can lead to unwanted effects, and polarization purity can thus be helpful. For example, one uses polarizing fibers in fiber-optic gyroscopes and interferometric sensors.
Comparing with polarization-maintaining fibers, single-polarization fibers are a small niche market, although for some applications they are critical.
More to Learn
Suppliers
The RP Photonics Buyer's Guide contains four suppliers for single-polarization fibers. Among them:
Fibercore

Fibercore Zing™ speciality optical fiber is an all-fiber polarizer, guiding only a single-polarization state, providing practical real world polarizing performance. Straight or coiled, Zing™ delivers the high Polarization Extinction Ratio (PER) and broad, stable operating window that applications demand.
Exail
Exail (formerly iXblue) polarizing fiber (PZ) is designed so that only one state of polarization is guided along the fiber; any other state of polarization will be lost rapidly, thus yielding a high built-in polarization extinction ratio. This particular mechanism is obtained through a specific waveguide design and a careful optimization of the glass composition resulting in both high birefringence and leakage behavior.
PZ fibers are available for different wavelengths with a broad polarizing window (typically larger than 100 nm), low attenuation and high extinction ratio (≥30 dB), that can be tuned by coiling the proper fiber length at the appropriate coil diameter.
Exail also offers ready-to-use polarizing solutions based on PZ fibers.
Bibliography
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