Atec Agilent-8169A - Manual (Page 3)

Page 3 of 6
The Agilent 8169A Polarization
Controller
The Agilent 8169A provides polarization synthesis
relative to a built-in linear polarizer. The quarter-
wave plate and half-wave plate are individually
adjusted to create all possible states of
polarization. Pre-deterministic algorithms within
the Agilent 8169A enable the transition path from
one state of polarization on the Poincare
1 sphere
to another to be specified along orthogonal great
circles. These features are important because
device response data can be correlated to specific
states of polarization input to the test device.
PDL measurement of DWDM components using
Mueller method is one of the main applications.
The Mueller method stimulates the test path with
four precisely known states. Precise measurement
of the corresponding output intensities allows
calculation of the upper row of the Mueller matrix,
from which PDL is in turn calculated. This method
is fast, and ideal for swept wavelength testing of
PDL.
Figure 2: Orthogonal circles on the Poincare
sphere
1 show how the Agilent 8169A synthesizes
relative state-of-polarization points according to a
specified path.
Figure 3: Agilent 8169A block diagram
_______
1 The Poincare Sphere is a three-dimensional
graphing system for viewing all possible states of
polarization.
Linear
λ/4 λ /2
Polarizer plate plate
Optical
Input
Optical
Output