Theoretical and experimental studies of polarization mode dispersion of an electro-optic Mach-Zehnder modulator

A theoretical model is developed to study the polarization mode dispersion effect in an electro-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometric (MZI) modulator. The Stokes parameters and differential group delay (DGD) of the output light of a MZI modulator can be analytically derived with the proposed model, which is based on a three-dimensional Maxwell's wave equation approach. The theoretical model is validated to the extent possible by comparing the theoretical results of the Stokes parameters and DGD with experimental measurements that are based on the wavelength-scanning method and the Jones matrix eigenanalysis method.