The temporal response of a polarization-dispersive medium is derived for the case of a highly coherent source using principal states of polarization. Experimental results in dispersion-shifted fiber at 1.55 µm confirm that the first-order effect of polarization dispersion is a difference in the time of flight for pulses launched in the two principal states, while the second-order effect on pulse propagation is an effective chromatic dispersion of opposite sign for these two states. The latter effect is demonstrated by the compression of frequency-chirped pulses in one principal state and pulse broadening in the orthogonal state.

© 1988 Optical Society of America

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