Polarization maintaining fibers (PMFs) can keep linear polarization state against external perturbations by inducing a high effective refractive index difference (Δneff) along one polarization axis. For few mode polarization maintaining fibers (FM-PMFs), Δneff is applicable between both orthogonal linear polarization modes (e.g. LP01x and LP01y) and orthogonal degenerated modes (e.g. LP11a and LP11b), which can enable advanced functionalities in multiple-input multiple- output-free spatial division multiplexing systems and optical fiber sensing systems. Therefore, the measurement of Δneff for polarization modes and degenerated modes is very important for determining the quality of a FM-PMF. However, measurement of the Δneff for FM-PMFs can be complicated due to the requirement for generating and demultiplexing of the higher order modes (HOMs). In this paper, we propose to measure the Δneff of FM-PMFs using Spatially and Spectrally resolved imaging (S2) method for the first time. The presented method is simply by employing a tunable laser and an IR CCD camera, can avoid any mode converter or mode multiplexer/demultiplexer, featuring a rapid testing speed. A proof-of-concept experiment is carried out to measure FM-PMFs with a length of 1.1m and 5m. The Δneff between the orthogonal polarization modes (i.e. LP11ax-11ay, LP11bx-11by, LP21ax-21ay, and LP21bx-21by) are characterized as 7.05×10-4, 6.91×10-4, 1.02×10-3 and 1.04×10-3 respectively. The Δneff of the orthogonal degenerated modes (i.e. LP11ax-11bx, LP11ay-11by, LP21ax-21bx and LP21ay-21by) are also characterized to be 1.39×10-4, 1.24×10-4, 5.61×10-5 and 6.53×10-5 respectively.
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