fiber 304 once the desired polarization state is obtained an output fiber 316 may then be joined to end 314 of retardation fiber 304 via a splice or some other suitable means typically output fiber 316 is an end of a sensing coil in addition output fiber 316 suitably preserves circular polarization states in an alternate exemplary method 500 in accordance with the present invention as shown in fig2 amp 5 input fiber 202 is spliced to retardation fiber 204 such that their polarization axes are oriented at 45 u00b0 with respect to each other step 502 input fiber 202 and retardation fiber 204 are suitably linear polarization maintaining fibers retardation fiber 204 is then cleaved at a length from the splice that is slightly more than that which will give the desired retardation as discussed above step 504 a third or output fiber 210 may then be spliced to an end of retardation fiber 204 step 506 the above connection of input fiber 202 retardation fiber 204 and output fiber 210 may be done in any sequence polarized light is then transmitted into input fiber 202 step 508 the output of output fiber 210 is transmitted into a polarization analyzer and detector to determine the polarization state of light emitted from.