Transient radiation effects in polarization-maintaining fibers

Polarization-maintaining fibers were irradiated with 1.5 ns electron pulses. Linearly polarized light was injected into the fiber, aligned either parallel or perpendicular to the fiber core's stress axis. Linearly polarized light was detected with a high speed optical system, with polarization axis either parallel or perpendicular to the stress axis. Light throughput and attenuation were documented in these four geometries. No differences were observed in radiation-induced attenuation between the two injection conditions when the output observations were aligned with input orientation. No evidence in this time regime was seen for radiation-induced mode crossover, i.e., no signal (to < 1% of the power transmitted along the injection axis) was observed in the cross polarization state at the output as a consequence of the irradiation.