Abstract:
The propagation of polarised low-coherent radiation is studied in an anisotropic single-mode glass fibre with imperfections of anisotropy. These imperfections are typical for interferometers used in devices for optical coherence tomography and can be caused by an inaccurate splicing of fibres or by their compression. The appearance of parasitic interference peaks due to anisotropic inhomogeneities is considered theoretically. The subtraction of parasitic peaks with orthogonal polarisations is studied theoretically and experimentally. The obtained experimental data well agree with theoretical estimates. The results of the paper are important for improving the methods for calculating interference schemes and for diagnostics of their defects.