General solutions for stress-induced polarization in optical fibers

General solutions of thermal stresses and material birefringence in polarization-maintaining optical fibers are presented. The solutions give the stresses and birefringence at every point in the cross section of various fibers. The fundamental solution of the stress field is constructed by using the complex variable method in elasticity. When the cores, inner claddings, or stress-inducing regions are ellipses, circles, or bow-tie shapes, exact closed-form solutions can be found. The average core birefringence and center core birefringence of elliptical core, elliptical cladding, twin core, Panda, and bow-tie fibers are calculated and compared. Among these fibers, the bow-tie fiber shows the highest birefringence.< >