Chromatic dispersion measurement

A method for measuring chromatic dispersion at a first optical frequency of an optical device comprising:

• launching, at an input of said device, at each of at least two optical frequencies, four non-degenerate light signals {right arrow over (s)}i(i=1,a,b,c) that span Stokes space,
• measuring, at an output of said device, the mean signal delay τgi(i=1,a,b,c) of each of said test signals at each of said optical frequencies, and
• calculating the chromatic dispersion of said device as the change of the intrinsic group delay τ0 with wavelength, where the calculation is based upon the formula:
• 13 τ 0 = τ g1 - α 1 ⁢ τ g ⁢ ⁢ a - β 1 ⁢ τ g ⁢ ⁢ b - γ 1 ⁢ τ g ⁢ ⁢ c 1 - α 1 - β 1 - γ 1 ( 13 )
• where the coefficients α1, β1, and γ1 are determined from the relations:
• α1={right arrow over (s)}1·({right arrow over (s)}b×{right arrow over (s)}c)/({right arrow over (s)}a·({right arrow over (s)}b×{right arrow over (s)}c)), (11a)
• β1={right arrow over (s)}1·({right arrow over (s)}a×{right arrow over (s)}c)/({right arrow over (s)}b·({right arrow over (s)}a×{right arrow over (s)}c)), (11b)
• γ1={right arrow over (s)}1·({right arrow over (s)}a×{right arrow over (s)}b)/({right arrow over (s)}c·({right arrow over (s)}a×{right arrow over (s)}b)), (11c)

A method for measuring chromatic dispersion at a first optical frequency of an optical device comprising:

• launching, at an input of said device, at each of at least two optical frequencies, four non-degenerate, sinusoidal amplitude modulated, light signals {right arrow over (s)}i(i=1,a,b,c) that span Stokes space, where {right arrow over (s)}1=Ŝ1, {right arrow over (s)}a=(a1,a2,a3), {right arrow over (s)}b=(b1,b2,b3 ), and {right arrow over (s)}c=(c1,c2,c3),
• measuring, at an output of said device, the mean signal delay τgi(i=1,a,b,c) of each of said test signals at each of said optical frequencies, and
• calculating the chromatic dispersion of said device as the change of the intrinsic group delay τ0 with wavelength, where the calculation is based upon the formula:
• tanωm(τg1−τ0)=α1 tanωm(τga−τ0)+β1 tanωm(τgb−τ0)+γ1 tanωm(τgc−τ0)
• where the coefficients α1,β1, and γ1 are determined from:
• 15 [LeftBracketingBar] α 1 β 1 γ 1 α 2 β 2 γ 2 α 3 β 3 γ 3 [RightBracketingBar] = [LeftBracketingBar] a 1 a 2 a 3 b 1 b 2 b 3 c 1 c 2 c 3 [RightBracketingBar] - 1 ( 16 )