Strain-Induced Thermally Tuned Long-Period Fiber Gratings Fabricated on a Periodically Corrugated Substrate

Abstract

This paper reports the characteristics of a strain-induced thermally controlled loss-tunable long-period fiber grating (LPFG) fabricated on a prepatterned corrugated substrate. Periodic microbending at the fiber-substrate interface induces mode coupling between the core and asymmetrical cladding modes that yields narrow-band attenuation as large as -25 dB. Several parameters that affect the performance of the tunable LPFG, such as the diameter of the etched fiber, number of grating periods, curing condition, and thermal expansion properties of the bonding materials, are investigated. This paper also demonstrates the integration of an on-chip thin-film microheater that also functions as a temperature sensor for the LPFG.