Low-cost Motorized Fiber Polarization Controller for High-Precision Fiber Optic Interferometers

Abstract

This work presents the feasibility of developing a low-cost motorized fiber optic polarization controller. To validate the operation of the design, a Mach Zehender interferometer was built on single-mode optical fiber, whose visibility of optical interference will depend on the difference in polarization between its arms. Using this design, a visibility greater than 0.99 was obtained. These results demonstrate the proposed device�s high precision, whose construction cost is lower by an order of magnitude compared to commercial devices. The low optical losses, the flexibility of the electronic design, and the feasibility of its miniaturization suggest that the results of our system allow progress in autonomous optical systems, which can be applied to quantum communications systems.