White light interferometry test and analysis of LiNbO₃ polarizer

White light interferometer can be used to measure the amplitude extinction ratio (ER) of polarizer and coupling distribution in fiber. A LiNbO₃ polarizer coupled with a polarization maintaining fiber and a silica planar waveguide at the two ends was measured using white light interferometer. According to the principles of optical coherence domain polarimeter (OCDP) technique, the test scheme is analyzed and presented to measure the ER of LiNbO₃ polarizer with its apparatus proposed correspondingly. By analyzing the interference intensity, both the ER of LiNbO₃ polarizer and its coupling crosstalk with optical fiber and waveguide are obtained. The results illustrate that the ER of a 5 mm-long LiNbO₃ polarizer is 71 dB and the crosstalk of the coupling points are around 40 dB. The results have good agreement with analysis.