Prescriptive method for fiber polarization compensation in two bases

Abstract

Single-mode optical fibers exhibit a small but non-negligible birefringence that induces random polarization rotations during light propagation. In classical interferometry these rotations give rise to polarization-induced fading of the interferometric visibility, and in fiber-based polarimetric sensors as well as quantum optics experiments, they scramble the information encoded in the polarization state. Correcting these undesired rotations is consequently an important part of many experiments and applications employing optical fibers. In this Lab Note we review an efficient method for fully compensating fiber polarization rotations for general input states. This method was not originally devised by us, but does, to the best of our knowledge, not appear in the literature, and our interactions with the community have indicated that it is not well known.