Abstract

The holographic technique of exposing the photosensitive core of an optical fibre to two interfering UV beams has been widely adopted as the most effective way of producing low- loss gratings in fibres¹. Recently, the use of high pulse energy, line-narrowed KrF excimer lasers has made it possible to reduce the writing time to 20ns - the duration of a single laser pulse^2,3. Here we report on a new grating formation mechanism which is capable of producing high reflectivity and thermally robust gratings using such a technique.

© 1993 Optical Society of America