Bending-induced birefringence of optical fiber cladding modes

The bend-induced lateral stresses that generate birefringence in an optical fiber are analytically determined throughout the fiber cross section. This stress profile is used to determine the birefringence of a cladding mode in a single-mode fiber. The result demonstrates that the birefringence of cladding modes may be much smaller than that of the core mode and knowledge of the mode profile and stress distribution is necessary for an accurate prediction.