Randomly varying birefringence leads to nonlinear polarizationmode dispersion (PMD) in addition to the well-known linear PMD. Here, we calculated the variance of the field fluctuations produced by this nonlinear PMD. The effects of fiber nonlinearity, linear PMD and nonlinear PMD are studied numerically using the Manakov-PMD equation which models signal propagation in optical fibers with randomly varying birefringence. Nonlinear PMD is shown to be unimportant in present day communication systems.
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