Birefringence Measurements in Optical Waveguides

This paper deals with an experimental nondestructive technique for the measurement of modal birefringence of integrated optical waveguides. The method is based on a magneto-optical perturbation technique combined with a highly sensitive polarimeter. Magneto-optical modal conversion, through the Verdet constant of the waveguides, and its dependence on the perturbation length are discussed. In this paper, the practical application of this equipment is proposed for the measurement of modal birefringence in totally or partially buried ion exchanged waveguides.