Self-aligning polarization strategy for making side polished polarization maintaining fiber devices.

In this letter, we propose a new method that uses the stress applying parts (SAPs) in the polarization maintaining fibers (PMFs) cladding to realize the self-alignment of the side-polished face and the slow axis. This method enables the polarizers to be fabricated directly onto PMFs, and there are no interruptions to the optical path and no internal interfaces to reflect light. The polarizers offer a high polarization extinction ratio (PER) and high temperature stability. Theoretical and experimental results show that the new method dramatically reduces the polarization axis alignment (PAA) error and increases the success rate of making side-polished PMF polarizers with PER > 23 dB from 18.8% to 65.0%.