A new technique for measuring dispersion of optical fibers using a frequency-shifted feedback fiber laser. Part 1: Measurement of group velocity dispersion

With the continually improving performance of long-distance optical communi cation systems, it becomes important to administer and control wavelength d ispersion of the optical fiber. In this paper, a method of measurement of t he group velocity dispersion (GVD) of an optical fiber using optical freque ncy domain reflectometry is proposed. In this scheme, frequency-chirped lig ht is used as a light source and the total dispersion of the GVD of the opt ical fiber is measured from the variations of the optical frequency chirp r ate after transmission through the fiber. In this method, the GVD value ver sus the optical wavelength can be measured directly. Another characteristic is that the effect of measurement error due to fluctuations of the fiber u nder test can be neglected. An experimental verification of the present sch eme was performed with a frequency-shifted feedback laser, which is an idea l linear chirped light source. (C) 2001 Scripta Technica.