Direct measurement of fiber Bragg grating local birefringence using optical low coherence reflectometry

Optical low coherence reflectometry (OLCR) was used for the measurement of the local fiber Bragg grating (FBG) birefringence. The birefringence with resolution of 4 x 10(-6) was determined directly from oscillations in the OLCR amplitude with a spatial resolution on the millimeter scale. Using OLCR phase in combination with inverse scattering algorithm the birefringence was retrieved with a high spatial resolution of 25 microns. The technique using OLCR amplitude was applied for measuring birefringence of a FBG under diametric loading.