Observation of light-by-light polarization control and stabilization in optical fibre for telecommunication applications

Abstract

In many photonics applications, especially in optical fibre based systems, the state of polarization of light remains so far an elusive uncontrolled variable, which can dramatically affect the performances of that systems and which one would like to control as finely as possible. Here, we experimentally demonstrate light-by-light polarization control via a nonlinear effect occurring in single mode optical fibre. We observe a polarization attraction and stabilization of a 10 Gbit/s optical telecommunication signal around 1550 nm. We also validate the potentiality of the device to annihilate very fast nanosecond polarization bursts. This result confirms yet another fascinating possibility to all-optical control the light properties in optical fibre.