Fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) continue to be used in a wide variety of different telecommunications products such as filters, pump stabilisers and dispersion compensators. The increased specifications being demanded by successive generations of FBG components mean that higher manufacturing controls are needed to ensure high quality performance. One of the key areas of concern has been the effect of the laser exposure on the tensile strength of the fibre, since this affects yield, quality and lifetime of the FBG device. No comparative study has, to the best of our knowledge, so far been conducted to measure the relative merits of different exposure conditions. We present measurements of the degradation of the strengths of Corning SMF28 and intrinsically photosensitive fibres from laser exposure with the following lasers: excimer lasers at 193nm and 248nm and argon-ion laser at 244nm. A comparison is presented of the fibre pull strengths under varying illumination conditions with the different laser systems and a methodology established for favourable exposure conditions for FBG writing with reduced fibre strength degradation.
An experimental study is presented which evaluates the effects of various important exposure parameters on the quality of fiber Bragg gratings. The parameters addressed include laser repetition rate, fluence and intensity, total exposure dose, numbers of shots, fiber-mask separation and beam scanning speed. In the case of excimer laser writing of gratings, it is seen that the balance between exposure fluence and total dose is crucial in how strong a grating can written and its writing time. It is also observed that the laser repetition rate does not affect the grating quality and that a fiber-mask separation of around 50 - 200 μm is desirable for optimum gratings. The changes in grating quality with argon ion beam scanning speed and exposure power are presented.
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