Pulse distortion induced by polarization-mode dispersion and polarization-dependent loss in lightwave transmission systems

The combined effects of polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) and polarization-dependent loss (PDL) on pulse broadening in optical transmission links for both PMD uncompensated and compensated systems are investigated by numerical simulation. It is shown that, when PDL is large, PDL considerably reduces the efficiency of PMD compensation, which, we find, is mainly due to the increased higher order PMD caused by the combined effects of PMD and PDL, as well as nonorthogonal principal states of polarization.