Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) are key elements in modern telecommunication and sensing applications. In optical communication, with the advancement of the Erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), there is a great demand for devices with wavelength tunability over the Erbium gain bandwidth (in particular, for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks). The center wavelength of a FBG can be shifted by means of change of temperature, pressure or mechanical axial strain. The axial strain approach is the best method among all other techniques because it allows relatively large wavelength shifts with high speed. Axial strain of up to 4% will be required to cover the whole EDFA region (more than 40 nm of central wavelength shift). The formation of Bragg grating results in significant reduction in mechanical strength of optical fibers especially in tension. As a result, axial strain of only about 1% can be achieved by mechanical stretching of FBGs. In order to achieve the remaining 3% strain compression of FBGs has to be applied.
In this thesis, the design and analysis of a novel device for achieving central wavelength shift are presented. In particular, the device has achieved, for a fiber with 12 mm FBG, a shifting of 46 nm in compression and 10.5 nm in tension with a reflection power loss of less than 0.25 dB and a FWHM bandwidth variation of approximately 0.1 nm. Both variations are well below the Bellcore standards requirement of 0.5 dB for peak reflectivity variation and 0.1 nm for bandwidth variation. The device consists of two fixed and one guiding ferrules. The difficulties associated with compressing the FBG were handled by carefully selecting tolerances and adjustment procedures. The device allows both tension and compression of FBGs, and the use of different FBG lengths and actuators. The effects of glue deformation and bending of the FBG during compression were analyzed in detail. Further, using the piezoelectric transducer (PZT) actuator as a driver, tuning speed of around 1.5nm/ms was achieved.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-09222005-163052 |
| Date | 30 September 2005 |
| Creators | Mohammad, Najeeb |
| Contributors | Zhang, W. J. (Chris), Torvi, David A., Szyszkowski, Walerian, Oguocha, Ikechukwuka N., Dodds, David E., Chen, X. B. (Daniel) |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-09222005-163052/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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