Spectral Beam Combining of Fiber Lasers by Using Reflecting Volume Bragg Gratings

By employing three reflecting volume Bragg gratings, a near-infrared 4-channel spectral-beam-combining system is demonstrated to present 720 W combined power with a combining efficiency of 94.7%. The combined laser beam is near-diffraction-limited with a beam factor M^2-1.54. During this 4-channel beam-combining process, no special active cooling measures are used to evaluate the volume Bragg gratings as combining elements are under the higher power laser operation. Thermal expansion and period distortion are verified in a 2 k W 2-channel beam-combining process, and the heat issue in the transmission case is found to be more remarkable than that in the diffraction e-se. Transmitted and diffracted beams experience wave-front aberrations with different degrees, thus leading to distinct beam deterioration.

Engineering approach to in-situ bridge health monitoring with fiber bragg gratings

In this presentation the feasibility and capability of fiber Bragg gratings （FBG） employed in bridge health monitoring are demonstrated on a real bridge. FBG＇ s wavelength shift depending on strain variance has been tested. The technique of FBG installation on bridges has been developed. 12 FBG strain sensors and 3 temperature sensors have been successfully embedded in the prestressed concrete box girder during the construction of Heilongjiang Hulan River Bridge. The prestressing tension process and quasi-static loading process of the girder were monitored with those sensors before it was installed onto the bridge. After the bridge was completed, the FBG sensors embedded have been utilized to monitor the strain shift of the beam under quasi-static load, traffic load and temperature. The results show that the traffic fluxes, possible tatigue damage and deflection of the bridge can be revealed conveniently through strain measurements with these FBG sensors, which provide key information for structural health diagnosis. The fact that the FBG strain sensors have withstood the ordeal of harsh construction process and lasted for more than one year proves that their durability and stability can satisfy the requirements for bridge health monitoring. It is also shown that the FBG strain sensor is more adaptive to long-term structural health monitoring than the electric resistance strain gauge.

Fabrication and Evaluation of Bragg Gratings on Optimally Designed Silicon-on-Insulator Rib Waveguides Using Electron-Beam Lithography

The fabrication of Bragg gratings on silicon-on-insulator （SOI） rib waveguides using electron-beam lithography is presented. The grating waveguide is optimally designed for actual photonic integration. Experimental and theoretical evaluations of the Bragg grating are demonstrated. By thinning the SOl device layer and deeply etching the Bragg grating, a large grating coupling coefficient of 30cm^-1 is obtained.

Fabrication of arbitrarily apodized fiber Bragg gratings with narrow bandwidth

A double-exposure fabrication method without any intensity shadow mask to fabricate arbitrarily apodized fiber Bragg gratings（ FBGs） with narrow bandwidth is demonstrated by controlling the total ultra violet （UV） irradiation along the grating by varying the speed of a translation stage. The UV source used is a stable continuous intracavity frequency-doubled argonion laser. The parameters （such as length, apodization profile, average index change）of FBGs can be easily changed with this method. The total UV irradiation is kept constant in the doubleexposure process because of the precise control of the exposure time, which ensures that the apodized FBG＇s bandwidth can be extremely narrow. The full width at half maximum （FWHM） bandwidth of the 2-cm-long apodized FBG fabricated by this method is 0. 15 nm with a maximum reflectivity of more than 95%.

Fiber Bragg Gratings in Small-Core Ge-Doped Photonic Crystal Fibers

This paper reports fiber Bragg gratings （FBGs） inscribed in a small-core Ge-doped photonic crystal fibers with a UV laser and a Talbot interferometer. The responses of such FBGs to temper- ature, strain, bending, and transverse-loading were systematically investigated. The Bragg wavelength of the FBGs shifts toward longer wavelengths with increasing temperature, tensile strain, and transverse-loading. The bending and transverse- loading properties of the FBGs are sensitive to the fiber orientations.

Two-dimensional non-spatial filtering based on holographic Bragg gratings

The filter made up of two gratings performs as a two-dimensional non-spatial filtering. This paper reports that the volume Bragg gratings are fabricated by interfering two collimated coherent laser beams in photopolymer. Diffraction efficiency of a single grating is up to 78% in Bragg＇s condition, then a two-dimensional non-spatial filter, which consists of two volume Bragg gratings and a half-wave plate, enables the laser beam filtered in two dimensions with the diffraction efficiency of 54%. The Bragg＇s condition and effect of polarisation on performances of the two-dimension filter are also discussed.

Dynamic OADM Using Tunable Sampled Bragg Gratings Based on Vernier Effect

A novel dynamic optical add-drop multiplexer(OADM) scheme using tunable sampled fiber Bragg gratings(SFBG) by Vernier effect is firstly proposed. In this scheme, broad wavelength tuning range is achieved by only slightly adjusting the SFBG, the wavelength tuning of OADM will be faster than traditional dynamic OADM.

Characteristics of Bragg Gratings in All-Solid Photonic Bandgap Fiber

We report on fiber Bragg gratings in all-solid photonie bandgap fiber that was composed of a triangular array of high-index Ge-doped rods in pure silica background with fluorine-doped index-depressed layer surrounding the Ge-doped rod. Fiber Bragg gratings were photowritten with 193 nm ArF excimer laser and characterized for their response to strain, temperature, bending, and torsion. These gratings couple light from the forward core mode to not only backward core mode but also backward rod modes. This results in multiple resonance peaks in the reflection spectrum. All resonance wavelengths exhibited the same temperature and strain response with coefficient similar to that of Bragg gratings in standard single-mode fiber. The strength of the resonance peaks corresponding to the backward rod modes showed high sensitivity to bending and torsion.

Birefringent Bragg Gratings in Highly-Nonlinear Photonic Crystal Fiber

Efficient writing of Bragg gratings in 12-ring highly-nonlinear photonie crystal fibers is described. Experimental and numerical investigations are performed to reveal the optimum angle for coupling UV writing light to the core. Furthermore, we show that the formation of a strongly briefringent grating is at a particular angle of orientation.

Advances in femtosecond laser direct writing of fiber Bragg gratings in multicore fibers:technology,sensor and laser applications

In this article,we review recent advances in the technology of writing fiber Bragg gratings(FBGs)in selected cores of multicore fibers(MCFs)by using femtosecond laser pulses.The writing technology of such a key element as the FBG opens up wide opportunities for the creation of next generation fiber lasers and sensors based on MCFs.The advantages of the technology are shown by using the examples of 3D shape sensors,acoustic emission sensors with spatially multiplexed channels,as well as multicore fiber Raman lasers.

Irradiation effect on strain sensitivity coefficient of strain sensing fiber Bragg gratings

The effect of irradiation on the strain sensitivity coefficient of strain sensing fiber Bragg gratings （FBGs） has been investigated through experiments. FBGs were fabricated in single mode fibers with 3 tool% Ge-concentration in the core and with a H2-1oading treatment. In experiments, the FBGs were subjected to y-radiation exposures using a Co6~ source at a dose-rate of 25 Gy/min up to a total dose of 10.5 kGy. The GeO defect in fiber absorbs photons to form a GeE＇ defect; the interaction with H2 is a probable reason for the y-radiation sensitivity of gratings written in hydrogen loaded fibres, The effect mechanism of radiation on the strain sensitivity coefficient is similar to that of radiation on the temperature sensitivity coefficient. Radiation affects the effective index neff, which results in the change of the thermo-optic coefficient and the strain-optic coefficient. Irradiation can change the strain sensitivity coefficient of FBGs by 1.48%-2.71%, as well as changing the Bragg wavelength shift （BWS） by 22 pm-25 pm under a total dose of 10.5 kGy. Our research demonstrates that the effect of irradiation on the strain sensitivity coefficient of FBG is small and that strain sensing FBGs can work well in the radiation environment.

Magneto-Optic Fiber Bragg Gratings with Application to High-Resolution Magnetic Field Sensors

Magneto-optic fiber Bragg gratings （MFBG） based on magneto-optic materials have a lot of potential applications for sensing and optical signal processing. The transmission and reflection spectra of guided optical waves in the MFBG are investigated. According to the sensitivity of MFBG spectral lines to the magneto-optic coupling intensity varying with applied magnetic field, a novel magnetic field sensor of high-resolution up to 0.01 nm/（kA/m） is predicted.

The system of L-band 2 × 10 Gb/s WDM transmission over conventional single mode fibre with 600 km by chirped fibre Bragg gratings dispersion compensation

A chirped fibre Bragg grating according to ITU-T suggested L-band （2nd channel λ1 = 1570.83 nm; 80th channel λ2 = 1603.57 nm） with more than 1800 ps/nm single channel dispersion compensation is presented in this paper, of which the cladding mode loss, the delay curve ripple and the power fluctuation of the reflected spectrum are less than 0.5 dB, 50 ps and 0.25 dB, respectively. With this new FBG as dispersion compensation device, a 2 × 10 Gb/s wavelength division multiplexing （WDM） L-band transmission of 600 km based on conventional single mode fibre （G.652 fibre） is performed without forward error correction. The bit error rate （BER） is less than 10-12 and the power penalties of the 2nd and 80th channel of L-band are 1.8 dB and 2.0 dB, respectively.

Experimental investigation of pre-irradiation effect on radiation sensitivity of temperature sensing fiber Bragg gratings

The effect of pre-irradiation on radiation sensitivity of fiber Bragg gratings （FBGs） is verified experimentally. FBGs are fabricated in photosensitive optical fibers and single mode fibers with Ce-concentration in a range from 3 mol% to 23.37 mol% in the core. In experiments, the FBGs are subjected to twice v-radiation exposures to a Co^60 source at a dose-rate of 0.1 Gy/s up to a total dose of 50 kGy. Pre-irradiation treatment can reduce the temperature sensitivity variation of FBGs by 18.12%-35.91%, as well as Bragg wavelength shift （BWS） by 8%-27.08 %. Our research demonstrates that pre-irradiation treatment is a feasible method to improve the radiation tolerance of FBGs.

Tunable Super-Structured Fiber Bragg Gratings with Perfect Sequences Based on m-Sequence

Recently, a tunable fiber Bragg grating(FBG) was developed by using stress-responsive colloidal crystals. In this paper, we have simulated the application of these nanoparticles into the super-structured fiber Bragg grating(SSFBG) written with perfect sequences derived from a short maximal-length sequence. A tunable SSFBG will be available to overcome the prohibitive temperature variation of the optical codecs. Nevertheless,we presented a method to implement coherent time spreading optical code-division multiple-access(OCDMA) where a unique code(or perfect sequence) can be reused and mixed with different wavelengths to obtain a tunable wavelength-division multiplexing(WDM)system. In order to maximize the binary throughput, we have selected a unique short maximal-length sequence composed of 7 chips that can be tuned with 7 different optical wavelengths. We found thousands of different tunable combinations that presented power contrast ratios(P/C) higher than 12 dB. When a WDM-OCDMA system used 2 different combinations simultaneously, the perfect binary detection with error correction codes was achieved successfully. The tunable SSFBG with colloidal crystals will be a simple and good alternative choice for fiber-to-the-home(FTTH) communications.

Fabrication of High Quality Broadband Type IIA Chirped Fiber Bragg Gratings

Chirped fiber Bragg gratings have found many applications in optical communication and sensing systems. High quality filters based on chirped fiber Bragg gratings with reflection bandwidth of 2.6 and 32nm and high reflectivity are demonstrated experimentally with 2 and 4cm long phase masks, respectively. These filters with flat reflection band and high reflectivity are achieved by writing type IIA chirped Bragg gratings.

Dynamic Single/Dual-channel Filter with Tunable Fiber Bragg Gratings

The shift mechanism of Bragg wavelength with stress variation for a fiber grating is investigated in detail. The influence of strain change on reflection and bandpass is theoretically analyzed. By applying stress, the dynamic single/dual channel filter with tunable fiber Bragg gratings is achieved.

Multiwavelength Actively Mode-locked Fiber Laser with a Double-ring Configuration and Integrated Cascaded Sampled Fiber Bragg Gratings

A modified multiwavelength actively mode-locked fiber ring laser is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In this kind of laser, stable multiwavelengths lasing is achieved by integrating cascaded sampled fiber Bragg gratings(SFBGs) into the laser cavity. To implement actively mode-locking technique, a double-ring cavity configuration is used to assure that the cavity lengths for all wavelengths lasing are identical. Thus, simultaneous mode locking of all wavelengths has been successfully achieved by using the same mode-locking signal.

Formation Technologies of Fiber Bragg Gratings

The principle of fiber Bragg gratings(FBG) is briefly described. The formation technologies of FBG are systematically given and analyzed. In addition, the experiment is described in detail, e.g.,the phase mask method is used to write directly the period Bragg gratings into the Ge-doped single mode fiber with KrF excimer UV laser. The results of experiment are also presented and analyzed.

Temperature-and Strain-Compensated Directional Curvature Sensor Based on Bragg Gratings in Three-Core Fiber with Bridged Waveguides

Fiber-based curvature sensors,especially those capable of discerning the direction of curvature,have attracted more and more interest due to their promising applications in structural health monitoring,high-precision measurement,medical and biological diagnosis-treat instruments,and so on.Here,we propose and demonstrate a compact directional curvature sensor that comprises two bridged waveguides and three Bragg gratings in a section of three-core fiber(TCF).Both the waveguides and gratings are integrated by femtosecond laser micromachining method.The waveguides,connecting the TCF outer cores to the lead-in single-mode fiber core,function as beam couplers to realize simultaneous interrogation of all three gratings without any separate fan-in/out component.Owing to the spatial specificity,the outer-core gratings exhibit high and direction-dependent sensitivity to curvature,whereas the central-core grating is nearly insensitive to curvature but shows similar sensitivities to ambient temperature and axial strain as the outer-core gratings.It can be used to compensate the cross impact of temperature and strain when the outer-core gratings are applied for curvature detection.Moreover,the wavelength interval between two outer-core gratings is also proposed as an indicator for curvature sensing.It features with a much higher sensitivity to curvature and reduced sensitivities to temperature and axial strain.The corresponding maximum sensitivity to curvature is as high as 191.89 pm/m-1,while the sensitivities to temperature and strain are only 0.3 pm/℃and 0.0218 pm/με,respectively.Therefore,our proposed device provides a compact and robust all-infiber solution for directional curvature sensing.It not only offers high sensitivity and accuracy but also immunity to temperature and axial strain fluctuations,making it a promising tool for a wide range of applications.