A polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) measurement technique is described tha
t allows the determination of second- and higher order PMD vectors in optic
al fibers. The algorithm, based on Muller matrices, requires the launch of
only two polarizations per wavelength and uses large rotation angles as wel
l as interleaving to attain low-noise high-resolution PMD data. It has been
applied to fibers ranging from 2 to 40 ps in mean PMD.