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The consequences of fabricating Bragg gratings in various fibres, with or without hydrogen loading, and with varying laser power levels are explored. Three new techniques for fabricating chirped gratings are presented. Beams with dissimilar wavefront curvatures are interfered to give chirped gratings. With the same aim techniques of writing gratings on tapered fibres and on deformed fibres are also covered. With these techniques, a wide variety of gratings has been fabricated from the 'superbroad' (with bandwidths of up to 180 nm), small to medium bandwidth gratings with linear chirp profiles and quadratic chirped gratings. It is demonstrated that chirped grating can be concatenated to form all-fibre Fabry-Perot and Moiré resonators. These are further concatenated with chirped gratings to produce filters with narrow passbands and very broad stopbands. A number of other applications are also addressed. The use of chirped fibre gratings for dispersion compensation and femtosecond chirped pulse amplification is demonstrated. Chirped gratings are used as dispersive elements in modelocked fibre lasers producing ultrashort pulses. A chirped fibre grating Fabry-Perot transmission filter is used in a continuous wave laser that exhibits eleven simultaneously lasing wavelengths. Finally, the use of grating-coupler devices as variable reflectivity mirrors for laser optimisation and gain clamping is considered.

This thesis describes work on fibre transitions made in photonic crystal fibres (PCF) and conventional standard fibres. Three post-processing techniques were used to make the transitions: fibre tapering, ferrule drawing and a new technique – PCF hole inflation. All these methods change the fibre dimensions on a centimeter scale while maintaining very low loss. In the hole inflation technique, cladding holes are pressurized and can be enlarged while heat-treating, unlike other techniques where the holes can only be reduced in size. Controlled hole expansion was used to produce devices for applications such as supercontinuum generation. Furthermore, differential pressurization of holes could create a diversity of core shapes in a PCF section. For example they were investigated to improve interfacing of laser diodes to fibres. Differential pressurization was also used to introduce new cores into PCFs. Introducing a larger core asymmetrically by the original core resulted in a fundamental to second-order mode conversion with a high extinction ratio. Alternatively, similar mode conversion was demonstrated by fusing two unequal standard fibres. Also with standard fibres, low-loss multimode to single-mode fibre transitions were made using a modified fibre fabrication technique. These fibre transitions and optical devices have a wide range of potential applications, for example in supercontinuum generation and low-loss interfacing of fibres to other optical systems.

This is Part A. / <p> The equipment necessary to measure the loss in an optical fibre has been constructed. The details of the design and the results of testing the equipment are given. This equipment was designed to measure the loss induced in fibres by ionizing radiation, but can also be used to measure undamaged samples. A "dual-beam" system is used to increase the accuracy of the equipment.</p> <p> The equipment will measure the spectral attenuation of an optical fibre to an accuracy of ±1 dB/km between .9 and 1.65 μm if the fibre is at least 175m long and has an attenuation of less than 115 dB/km. Simple modifications to the equipment would reduce the sample length required for ±1 dB/km accuracy to 60 m.</p> <p> The minimum sample length is determined by the accuracy with which samples can be connected into the system. The maximum sample attenuation is determined by the signal to noise ratio. Methods of increasing the signal to noise ratio and the sample connection accuracy are discussed. Calculations based on the suggested improvements show that the sample length can be reduced to 45 m and the maximum attenuation increased to 750 dB/km for ±1 dB/km accuracy. The use of a testing method which does not require removal of the sample could give ±1 dB/km accuracy for 10 m samples.</p> <p> The operating and adjustment procedures for the equipment are given in the appendices to this report.</p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

We describe the theory and implementation of a multipole method for calculating the modes of microstructured optical fibers (MOFs). We develop tools for exploiting results obtained through the multipole method, including a discrete Bloch transform. Using the multipole method, we study in detail the physical nature of solid core MOF modes, and establish a distinction between localized defect modes and extended modes. Defect modes, including the fundamental mode, can undergo a localization transition we identify with the mode�s cutoff. We study numerically and theoretically the cutoff of the fundamental and the second mode extensively, and establish a cutoff diagram enabling us to predict with accuracy MOF properties, even for exotic MOF geometries. We study MOF dispersion and loss properties and develop unconventional MOF designs with low losses and ultra-flattened near-zero dispersion on a wide wavelength range. Using the cutoff-diagram we explain properties of these MOF designs.

We describe the theory and implementation of a multipole method for calculating the modes of microstructured optical fibers (MOFs). We develop tools for exploiting results obtained through the multipole method, including a discrete Bloch transform. Using the multipole method, we study in detail the physical nature of solid core MOF modes, and establish a distinction between localized defect modes and extended modes. Defect modes, including the fundamental mode, can undergo a localization transition we identify with the mode�s cutoff. We study numerically and theoretically the cutoff of the fundamental and the second mode extensively, and establish a cutoff diagram enabling us to predict with accuracy MOF properties, even for exotic MOF geometries. We study MOF dispersion and loss properties and develop unconventional MOF designs with low losses and ultra-flattened near-zero dispersion on a wide wavelength range. Using the cutoff-diagram we explain properties of these MOF designs.

The main topic of this thesis is realization and characterization of fibre Bragg gratings. A novel versatile grating fabrication technique is developed and a number of gratings are realized, showing the potential of the system. Arbitrarily-shaped gratings are sequentially imprinted in the fibre by a moving interference pattern created with a continuous-wave ultraviolet (UV) source. This scheme allows for a very good control and stability of the grating shape, which is also shown experimentally. As opposed to most other present fabrication techniques, the proposed method offers a total control over the grating parameters by software, enabling simple implementation of new designs. Different kinds of error sources when stitching long gratings are identified and investigated regarding impact on the final grating result. Another important question within this field is how to characterize gratings. We propose a new characterization method based on optical low-coherence reflectometry (OLCR). A new interferometer design allows for simple simultaneous detection of the reflection response from two different points in the interrogated grating, so that differential measurements can be performed. The advantage of this is that the sensitivity to noise caused by e.g. thermal fluctuations in the system is substantially reduced. Several test gratings have been investigated and a very good agreement to the expected results is noted. A second characterization technique using interferometric detection of the side diffraction from the grating under test is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. With aid of two-dimensional theory for wave propagation, it is shown that there is a linear relation between the detected phase and modulation depth and the corresponding grating properties. The technique is evaluated with a novel scheme of implementation where the UV source provided in a fabrication setup is used assource for the side probe. This approach results in a very simple implementation and opens for an integration of the characterization and fabrication systems. Finally, a tuning method for transmission filters based on local heating of linearly chirped fibre Bragg gratings is analysed and further developed to allow for fully software-controlled operation. The potential of this technique is illustrated by some promising initial experimental results. / QC 20100812

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, June 2007.