Birefringence generation mechanism in a fiber Fabry-Perot etalon buried in a fiber connector housing

We derived an analytical model according to which birefringence in a fiber Fabry-Perot etalon occurs due to the anisotropy of adhesive layers in the cementing of the fiber to the ferrule. We found that the birefringence was proportional to the product of the difference in the coefficients of linear expansion of the fiber and ferrule materials, the change in temperature, the Young's modulus of the adhesive, and the anisotropy of the adhesive layer thickness. In addition, by measuring the birefringence of six fiber Fabry-Perot etalons fabricated using three types of adhesives that differed in curing shrinkage and viscosity, we showed that the birefringence has a positive correlation with the curing shrinkage of the adhesive used. The measured temperature dependence of birefringence was consistent with the order of magnitude of the value calculated using the derived model, confirming the validity of the proposed model. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 90(5): 56–62, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecja.20174