Fiber Bragg gratings have become an important element in the fields of telecommunications and fiber optical sensing. Their small size, light weight and high tunability have made them ideal for many unique applications. In this paper the fabrication of these devices is investigated.
Following a review of current literature and a discussion of the mechanisms underlying the photosensitivity of optical fibers, a new technique for writing fiber Bragg gratings is presented. This technique uses a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser operating at 266 nm with pulse energies up to 137 ��J per pulse to write high quality gratings in standard optical fiber. This technique allows for the writing of variable wavelength gratings using a standard diffractive optical element (phase mask). The new technique has much lower setup and laser stability requirements than the conventional methods of writing variable wavelength fiber Bragg gratings. Furthermore, it is found to be very tunable and extremely robust, allowing for extended writing times.
A preliminary study of the time evolution of the writing process is also presented. It is evident that the process of grating inscription is very complicated and is not always adequately described by current models. In addition. it appears that the process is strongly dependent upon pulse energy and is accelerated by simultaneous heating of the fiber with a C0��� laser and by heating due to the writing laser.
A brief study of the thermal stability of different gratings is then given to determine some of the thermal stability properties of the fiber Bragg gratings written at OSU. / Graduation date: 2001
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/33086 |
| Date | 30 June 2000 |
| Creators | Stump, Kurt |
| Contributors | Plant, Thomas K. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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