Polarizing optical fiber for single-frequency laser transmission and interferometry based characterization thereof

We present a polarizing optical fiber designed to operate at 780 nm with, to date, an unprecedented spectral window. The polarization extinction ratio obtained for a 3 meters long sample of this fiber is greater than 60 dB over a 40 nm window. We will demonstrate these performances by presenting a new method for characterizing the rejection as a function of wavelength. This method presents many advantages; not the least being that it yields rejection values in excess of the individual rejections of polarizers used for the setup.