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We demonstrated a compact stable room-temperature multiwavelength erbium doped fiber laser by employing a 45° tilted fiber gratings (TFGs) based all-fiber polarization interference filter. Benefiting from the filter, the channel number, the linewidth, the uniformity and stabilization of the multiwavelength laser were greatly improved. The filter also worked as a polarizing functional device in nonlinear polarization rotation leading to multiwavelength operation. More than 60 wavelengths (within 3dB bandwidth) lasing with a linewidth of 0.03nm and a signal-to-noise ratio of 31dB were obtained. The wavelength spacing was 0.164nm agreeing with the value of the filter and it can be flexibly controlled by adjusting the length of the filter.

A polymer-core/silica-cladding hybrid optical fiber is implemented by filling a capillary with UV-curable epoxy and a following UV-laser scanning exposure. A fiber Bragg grating is successfully inscribed in parallel using a phase mask. The experimental results show a reduced thermal response for the FBG and a theoretical analysis for such a hybrid optical fiber is performed which corroborates existing of a turning temperature for minimized thermal response.

We report a linear response optical refractive index (RI) sensor, which is fabricated based on a micro-channel created within a Fabry Perot (F-P) cavity by chemical etching assisted by femtosecond laser inscription. The experimental results show the F-P resonance peak has a linear response with the RI of medium and the measuring sensitivity is proportion to the length of micro-channel. The sensor with 5 μm -long micro-channel exhibited an RI sensitivity of 1.15nm/RIU and this sensitivity increased to 9.08nm/RIU when widening the micro-channel to 35μm. Furthermore, such micro-channel FP sensors show a much broader RI sensing dynamic range (from 1.3 to 1.7) than other reported optical fiber sensors.

We experimentally demonstrated a highly sensitive twist sensor system based on a 45° and an 81° tilted fibre grating (TFG). The 81°-TFG has a set of dual-peaks that are due to the birefringence induced by its extremely tilted structure. When the 81°-TFG subjected to twist, the coupling to the two peaks would interchange from each other, providing a mechanism to measure and monitor the twist. We have investigated the performance of the sensor system by three interrogation methods (spectral, power-measurement and voltage-measurement). The experimental results clearly show that the 81°-TFG and the 45°-TFG could be combined forming a full fibre twist sensor system capable of not just measuring the magnitude but also recognising the direction of the applied twist.

A microchannel was inscribed in the fibre of a ring cavity which was constructed from two 0.1%:99.9% couplers and a 10m fibre loop. Cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) was used to measure the refractive index (RI) of gels infused into the microchannel with high resolution. The ring down tim e discloses a nonlinear increase with respect to the RI of the gel and sensitivity up to 300 P s/RI unit (RIU) and resolution of 5 u 10 -4 were obtained. Keywords : cavity ring down, femtosecond laser, microchannel, optical fibre sensor 1. Introduction Many efforts have recently been made towards detection of chemicals or biological agents of small quantities for the interest of life sciences and for security reasons. In this regard, cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) has been recognised as an efficient t ool, especially in analysing gas-phase materi als. Recently, optical-fibre-based CRDS attracted more and more interest because of its obvious advantages in terms of compactness compared to the bulk optical versions along with the absence of alignment difficulties. It was initially implemented by placing mirrors formed by dielectric films at the two ends of the fibre but the desirability of connecting the cavity to other fibre for transmitting of optical signals can bring unwanted effects to these films, such as pressure-induced refractive index (RI) change of the film.

In this paper, we report a simple fibre laser torsion sensor system using an intracavity tilted fibre grating as a torsion encoded loss filter. When the grating is subjected to twist, it induces loss to the cavity, thus affecting the laser oscillation build-up time. By measuring the build-up time, both twist direction and angle on the grating can be monitored. Using a low-cost photodiode and a two-channel digital oscilloscope, we have characterised the torsion sensing capability of this fibre laser system and obtained a torsion sensitivity of ~412µs/(rad/m) in the dynamic range from -150° to +150°.

We have proposed and demonstrated a fibre laser system using a microchannel as a cavity loss tuning element for surrounding medium refractive index (SRI) sensing. A ~6µm width microchannel was created by femtosecond (fs) laser inscription assisted chemical etching in the cavity fibre, which offers a direct access to the external liquids. When the SRI changes, the microchannel behaves as a loss tuning element, hence modulating the laser cavity loss and output power. The results indicate that the presented laser sensing system has a linear response to the SRI with a sensitivity in the order of 10-5. Using higher pump power and more sensitive photodetector, the SRI sensitivity could be further enhanced.

We report a distinctive polarisation mode coupling behaviour of tilted fibre Bragg gratings (TFBGs) with tilted angle exceeding 45°. The ex-45° TFBGs exhibit pronounced polarisation mode splitting resulted from grating structure asymmetry induced birefringence. We have studied and analysed the property of ex-45° TFBGs under transverse load applied to their equivalent fast- and slow-axis. The results show that the coupling between the orthogonally polarised modes takes place only when the load is applied to its fast-axis, giving a prominent directional loading response. This transverse load related polarisation property may be exploitable for implementation of optical fibre vector sensors capable of measuring the magnitude and orientation of the applied transverse load.

An 800nm band fiber Bragg grating sensing interrogation system using TFBG as the core wavelength division component is presented. A charge coupled device (CCD) linear array is put on the focal plane of the lens to detect the light. TFBG is used to tap light out of the fiber core to fiber cladding. The sensing wavelength is 795 to 830nm, with accuracy of 20pm and scan speed 100Hz. Using FBG sensor, we achieve the temperature sensitivity as 1.8°C and strain sensitivity as 18μe.

We present an implementation of high-sensitivity optical chemsensors based on FBGs UV-inscribed in D-shape and multimode fibres and sensitized by HF-etching treatment, demonstrating a capability of detecting chemical concentration changes as small as < 0.5%.

We demonstrate a high sensitivity biosensor by fine tailoring mode dispersion and sensitivity of dual-peak LPGs using light-cladding-etching method. The etched device has been used to detect concentration of Hemoglobin protein in sugar solution, showing a sensitivity as high as 20nm/1%.

We report experimental findings for tailoring the temperature and strain coefficients of Type 1 and Type 1A fibre Bragg gratings by influencing the photosensitivity presensitisation of the host optical fibre. It is shown that by controlling the level of hydrogen saturation, via hot and cold hydrogenation, it is possible to produce gratings with lower thermal coefficients. Furthermore, there is a larger difference between the Type 1 and Type 1A thermal coefficients and a significant improvement in the matrix condition number, which impacts the ability to recover accurate temperature and strain invariant data using the Type1-1A dual grating sensor.

A dual-parameter optical sensor has been realized by UV-writing a long-period and a Bragg grating structure in D-fiber. The hybrid configuration permits the detection of the temperature from the latter and measuring the external refractive index from the former responses, respectively. The employment of the D-fiber allows as effective modification and enhancement of the device sensitivity by cladding etching. The grating sensor has been used to measure the concentrations of aqueous sugar solutions, demonstrating the potential capability to detect concentration changes as small as 0.01%.

Type 1A fibre Bragg gratings (FBG) form only after the erasure of a standard grating in hydrogenated germanosilicate fibre, under prolonged UV exposure. They are distinct from other grating types as they exhibit a uniquely large increase in the mean index of the core, readily identifiable by a large red shift in the Bragg wavelength. Type 1A gratings can surpass the conventional mean index change by a factor of six with a typical red shift of up to 20nm, interpreted as a mean index increase of up to 1.9x10 -2 . Importantly, 1A gratings have been shown to exhibit the lowest temperature coefficient of all FBG, which makes them ideal for use as temperature compensated, dual grating sensors. We report on the formation of Type 1A gratings and the correlation between the mean index change of the grating and the growth of a loss band at close to 1400nm that is associated with the formation of OH centres within the fibre. We present annealing data comparing the decay of Type 1 and Type 1A gratings. Finally, we demonstrate a dual temperature compensated strain sensor system, based on two adjoining Type 1 and Type 1A gratings, which have been formed using a common phase mask, yet with central wavelengths many nm apart.

Point-probe optical fiber chem-sensors have been implemented using cladding etched fiber Bragg gratings. The sensors possess refractive index sensing capability that can be utilized to measure chemical concentrations. The Bragg wavelength shift reaches 8 nm when the index of surrounding medium changes from 1.33 to 1.44, giving maximum sensitivity more than 10 times higher than that of previously reported devices. More importantly, the dual-grating configuration of the point-probe sensors offers a temperature reference function, permitting accurate measurement of refractive index encoded chemical concentrations.

We report a new concept of biochemical sensor device based on long-period grating structures UV-inscribed in D-fiber. The surrounding-medium refractive index sensitivity of the devices has been enhanced significantly by a hydrofluoric acid etching process. The devices have been used to measure the sugar concentrations showing clearly an encoding relation between the chemical concentration and the grating spectral response, demonstrating their capability for potential biochemical sensing applications.

Optical fibre strain sensors using Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBGs) are poised to play a major role in structural health monitoring in a variety of application from aerospace to civil engineering. At the heart of technology is the optoelectronic instrumentation required to convert optical signals into measurands. Users are demanding compact, lightweight, rugged and low cost solutions. This paper describes development of a new device based on a blazed FBG and CCD array that can potentially meet the above demands. We have shown that this very low cost technique may be used to interrogate a WDM array of sensor gratings with highly accurate and highly repeatable results unaffected by the polarisation state of the radiation. In this paper, we present results showing that sensors may be interrogated with an RMS error of 1.7pm, drift below 0.12pm and dynamic range of up to 65nm.

In this paper dispersion compensation of two WDM channels using two cascaded Chirped fiber gratings (CFGs) fabricated by double exposure method as reported. The power penalty of dispersion compensation of two channels are both less than 1 dB.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.