Photosensitivity, chemical composition gratings and optical fiber based components

Sammanfattning: The different topics of this thesis include high-temperaturestable fiber Bragg gratings, photosensitivity and fiber basedcomponents.Fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) are wavelength dispersiverefractive index structures manufactured through UV exposure ofoptical fibers. Their applications range from WDM filters,dispersion compensators and fiber laser resonators fortelecommunication applications to different types of point ordistributed sensors for a variety of applications.One aim of this thesis has been to study a new type of FBGreferred to as chemical composition grating. These gratingsdiffer from other types of FBG in that their refractive indexstructure is attributed to a change in the chemicalcomposition. Chemical composition gratings have shown to beextremely temperature stable surviving temperatures in excessof 1000 oC. Photosensitivity of pure silica and germanium-dopedcore fibers in the presence of hydroxyl groups has also beenstudied and different types of fiber based components have beendeveloped.The main result of the thesis is a better understanding ofthe underlying mechanism of the formation of chemicalcomposition gratings and their decay behavior at elevatedtemperatures. The refractive index modulation is caused by aperiodic change in the fluorine concentration, which has beenverified through time-of-flight secondary-ion-mass spectrometryand through studies of the decay behavior of chemicalcomposition gratings. A model based on diffusion of dopants hasbeen developed, which successfully predicts the thermal decayat elevated temperatures. Studies of the dynamics of chemicalcomposition grating formation have resulted in a manufacturingtechnique that allows for reproducible gratingfabrication.The main results regarding photosensitivity is a method tosignificantly increase the effect of UV radiation on standardtelecommunications fiber. The method, referred to asOH-flooding, has also been applied to pure-silica core fibersresulting in the first report of strong grating formation insuch fibers.Finally, research into different schemes for developingfiber-based components has resulted in two types of singlefiber integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometers; one passiveinterferometer that can be used as an optical filter and oneactive interferometer controlled with internal metalelectrodes.Keywords:optical fibers, fiber Bragg gratings,photosensitivity, thermal stability, fiber sensors, chemicalcomposition gratings, fiber components, Mach-Zehnderinterferometer, optical switch, optical modulator.