Origin and system effects of polarization mode dispersion in chirped Bragggratings

Polarization mode dispersion of chirped Bragg gratings is analyzed in terms of key birefringence phenomena and impact on telecommunication systems per formance. The influence on polarization mode dispersion (PMD) of fiber bire fringence, grating chromatic dispersion, and ripples of the group delay cur ve is pointed out. Polarization mode dispersion influence on systems perfor mance is investigated by numerical simulation and transmission experiments at 10 Gbit/s. The deterministic nature of Bragg gratings PMD determines a m oderate, upper-limited system penalty for a transmission line employing a s ingle compensating device. However, in the case of broadband components, a nonnegligible PMD penalty may be observed due to the difficulty of controll ing accurately the group delay linearity.