Reflectometric Fiber Dispersion Measurement Using a Supercontinuum Pulse Source

We present a reflectometric measurement scheme of group-velocity dispersion for an optical fiber, whose measurement range covers the entire band of optical communication from 1200 to 1700 nm in wavelength by using a wideband supercontinuum source. In our measurement scheme, wavelength-dependent temporal delays are measured for spectrum-sliced supercontinuum pulses that have passed through a fiber under measurement (FUM). A reflectometric configuration is used to increase the accuracy of the measurement results by eliminating the effect of timing instabilities of the light source and the detection electronics. The time of flight is measured by taking the relative delay between two pulses back reflected by the two ends of an FUM. The delay measurement is performed for two wavelengths simultaneously to minimize the effect of the temperature-sensitive drift. We have successfully demonstrated that our scheme can characterize a relatively short single-mode fiber of 10 m with a good measurement accuracy.