Chino, CA--General Photonics has developed a calibration system for its polarization-measurement system (the PSGA-101A) and confirmed that the accuracy of the PSGA system exceeds that of NIST "artifacts" (metrology standards).
In other words, General Photonics researchers have developed artifacts that are more accurate than standard NIST reference materials. According to the company, the artifacts enabled them to confirm that the capability of the PSGA far exceeds all known commercial instruments with regard to accuracy, repeatability, and resolution. The conclusions of the paper were published in the OSA's Optics Express journal.1
Polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) PMD affects the reliability of fiber-optic data when the transmission speed exceeds 10 Gbit/s. Emerging communication systems operate at 40 Gbit/s and future systems will operate at speeds beyond 100 Gbit/s.
The results for accuracy, repeatability, and resolution, respectively, of the General Photonics system are as follows. For differential group delay (DGD), or first-order PMD: 2.6 fs, 0.022 fs, and 1 fs. For second-order PMD (SOPMD): 1.39 ps2, 0.28 ps2, and 0.005 ps2. For polarization-dependent loss (PDL): 0.06 dB, 0.034 dB, and 0.01 dB.
REFERENCE:
1. X. Steve Yao et al., Optics Express, Vol. 18, No. 7, March 29, 2010.
For more info, visit www.generalphotonics.com.
