4048 Vol. 41, No.
17 / September 1 2016 / Optics Letters
Behavior of femtosecond laser-induced eccentric
fiber Bragg gratings at very high temperatures
HICHAM CHIKH-BLED,1 KARIMA CHAH,2 ÁLVARO GONZÁLEZ-VILA,2 BOUMEDIÈNE LASRI,1
CHRISTOPHE CAUCHETEUR2,*
1
Laboratory of Telecommunications (LTT), Faculty of Technology, University Abou Bekr Belkaid, BP 230 Chetouane, 13000 Tlemcen, Algeria
2
Electromagnetism and Telecommunication Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mons, Boulevard Dolez 31, 7000 Mons, Belgium
*Corresponding author: christophe.caucheteur@umons.ac.be
Received 19 May 2016; revised 6 July 2016; accepted 9 August 2016; posted 10 August 2016 (Doc. ID 266676); published 26 August 2016
In this work, eccentric Bragg gratings are photoinscribed in
telecommunication-grade optical fibers. They are localized
close to the core–cladding interface, yielding strong clad-
ding mode resonance couplings and high photoinduced
birefringence. Their transmitted amplitude spectrum is
measured with polarized light while they are exposed to
temperature changes up to 900°C. Despite the gratings’
overall good thermal stability that confirms their robustness
for high-temperature refractometry, we report an interest-
ing polarization effect depending on both the cladding
mode resonance family and mode order. While the core
mode birefringence decreases with growing temperatures,
certain cladding mode resonances show an increase in
wavelength splitting between their orthogonally polarized
components. This differential behavior is of high interest
in developing high-resolution, multiparametric sensing
platforms. © 2016 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (060.2420) Fibers, polarization-maintaining; (060.3735)
Fiber Bragg gratings; (060.2370) Fiber optics sensors.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.41.004048
Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) can nowadays be produced in silica
optical fibers to withstand high temperatures beyond 1000°C
[1–3]. Among the different photoinscription processes, the use
of point-by-point (PbP) infrared (IR) femtosecond laser pulses
overcomes the need for glass sensitivity at the wavelength of the
writing laser since femtosecond pulses interact with materials
via nonlinear photoionization mechanisms such as multipho-
ton and tunneling ionization [4]. Other interesting intrinsic
properties result from the flexibility of the technique to produce
refractive index modulations that present an enhanced thermal
stability, allowing them to survive to temperatures higher than
1000°C [5].
Depending on the pulse energy and pulse width of the
femtosecond laser, two kinds of gratings, namely type I-IR
and type II-IR, have been observed in single mode fibers
[6]. The IR laser-induced birefringence in type I-IR gratings
in unloaded telecommunication-grade single mode optical fiber
0146-9592/16/174048-04 Journal © 2016 Optical Society of America
Letter
AND
(SMF-28) is much higher (∼10−5 ) than in hydrogen-loaded
ones (∼10−6 ) and exhibits strong polarization dependence [7].
The PbP inscription process correlates the speed of optical
fiber shifting along its axis with the repetition rate of the femto-
second pulses in such a way that each pulse engraves one period
of the grating. The PbP technique can be obtained from a tight
focusing of the femtosecond laser beam. Hence, the delivered
pulses enable creation of a highly localized refractive index
modulation anywhere in the fiber [4–9]. Such FBGs with
refractive index modulation highly localized close to the
core–cladding interface can be reliably produced with IR
(800 nm) femtosecond pulses [10,11]. They couple light
from the fiber core to the cladding and exhibit a comb-like
transmitted amplitude spectrum composed of narrowband
(FWHM ≈ 100 pm) cladding mode resonances on the lower
side of the Bragg resonance (core mode reflection). They thus
present similar spectral properties as tilted fiber Bragg gratings
(TFBGs) [12]. Strong cladding mode resonances have found
widespread applications in sensing, mainly for refractometric
sensing [13], but also for physical sensing [14]. Important
birefringence effects also come into play when the refractive
index modulation is not centered in the fiber cross section.
In the PbP method, a local ionization occurs at the focal point,
inducing a micro-void surrounded by high densification [15].
The birefringence properties of the grating depend strongly on
the shape and position of this modified region in the fiber cross
section [10–17].
We have recently demonstrated that the combined birefrin-
gence and eccentricity effects constitute an ideal prerequisite to
use such gratings for highly sensitive refractive index sensing
with a behavior similar to the one of TFBGs [18]. They
can also provide multiparametric sensing, as cladding resonan-
ces are sensitive to temperature, strain, pressure, bending, and
vibration [12]. It is of interest to provide FBG refractometers
able to operate at high temperatures for sensing in harsh
environments [19] and to ensure a good resistance to the pre-
liminary manufacturing process requiring high temperature
steps [20]. Sapphire optical fibers can be used to reach higher
temperatures up to 1200°C [21,22].
In the experiments reported in this Letter, we study the
influence of temperature on the cladding mode resonance
 Letter
spectrum of eccentric FBGs. Polarized light has been used to
investigate modal features linked to birefringence effects. In
particular, we have identified cladding mode resonances for
which the wavelength splitting between the x and y polarization
modes increases with the temperature. This behavior is the
opposite of the one in core mode resonance, which can be
highly interesting to develop for differential high-resolution
multiparametric sensing platforms.
All our experiments have been conducted with nonhydro-
genated standard single mode fibers (Corning SMF 28). The
parameters of interest of this fiber are the following: n1

1.4504, n2
1.44402, core radius a1
4.1 μm, cladding
radius a2
62.5 μm, and core mode guide index neff ;core

1.44717 for the wavelength λ of 1550 nm. Before grating pho-
toinscription, the polymer coating was removed by a chemical
stripper. Femtosecond pulses of 800 nm were produced by a
Spectra-Physics laser system composed of a Mai Tai oscillator
and a Spitfire Pro amplifier yielding 120 fs pulses at a 1 kHz
repetition rate. The optical fiber was clamped on a two-axis
air-bearing translation stage from Aerotech for alignment of
the fiber and precise displacement at a constant speed during
the inscription process in the horizontal plane containing the
optical fiber, as performed in our previous work [23]. A micro-
scope objective (0.65 numerical aperture) without oil immer-
sion was fixed on a translation stage with a piezoelectric
positioning system enabling precise positioning of the focus
in the direction perpendicular to the optical fiber axis. The
focused Gaussian beam is very small (∼1 μm) compared with
the core diameter (∼8 μm). A vision system was used to align
the laser focus and the optical fiber core. After alignment, the
fiber was shifted 2 μm off-center in the y direction [Fig. 1(a)]
and then translated with a constant speed of 0.55 mm/s to
produce 1-cm-long first-order eccentric FBGs with a Bragg
wavelength around 1591 nm and a period of 0.55 μm. The
grating writing process took 20 s. Figure 1(b) shows the trans-
mission microscope image of an eccentric FBG. The resolution
of the used microscope is 1 μm. Therefore, we show a second-
order grating manufactured in the same conditions.
The cladding mode resonances of such gratings typically
extend over several hundreds of nanometers. The transmitted
amplitude spectrum measurements were recorded in the C+L
bands with an optical vector analyzer (OVA) from Luna
Technologies (1.25 pm wavelength resolution). A strong local
photoinduced birefringence is created by the asymmetric refrac-
tive index modulation during the writing process in addition to
the intrinsic fiber birefringence. A linear polarizer was thus
placed upstream of the eccentric FBG to select the orthogonal
polarizations (so-called eigenmodes or x and y modes) of the
core mode.
Fig. 1. (a) Sketch of the point-by-point technique and (b) micro-
scope image of a second-order eccentric grating.
Vol. 41, No. 17 / September 1 2016 / Optics Letters 4049
In our case, we are interested in interactions between the
fundamental core mode HE11 and the cladding modes in a
SMF-28 fiber. Such a fiber has a low index difference
(∼0.005, see above) between the core and the cladding.
There are four types of cladding modes, TE0m , TM0m ,
HEl m , and EHl m , where “l ” is the azimuthal order and “m”
is the order of a mode. The radial (E r ) and azimuthal (E ϕ )
electric fields are zero for TE0m and TM0m modes, respectively.
In other words, TE0m and TM0m modes are polarization-
independent. However, both HEl m and EHl m modes combine
axial and transverse components and are therefore polarization-
dependent. So, a x-polarized core mode (also called x
eigenmode) couples to the even HEl m and TE0m modes,
whereas a y-polarized core mode couples primarily to the
odd EHl m and TM0m modes. Highest-order modes EHl m
and HEl m are dominantly radially and azimuthally polarized,
respectively [24].
Figure 2 shows the two orthogonally polarized transmitted
amplitude spectra of a 1-cm-long first-order eccentric FBG.
The transmitted spectrum is composed of multiple narrowband
resonances. The highest wavelength, the so-called Bragg wave-
length (λBragg ), corresponds to the coupling between the co-
propagating and contra-propagating core modes and appears
at ∼1591.5 nm. Other resonances result from the coupling
between the core mode and contra-propagating cladding modes
of the fiber. Figure 2 clearly figures out that the position of the
cladding modes and the Bragg peak depends on the input state
polarization. The x- and y-core mode resonances are separated
by 116 pm. This wavelength separation corresponds to 2ΔnΛ,
where Δn is the total birefringence value after the photowriting
process, combining the intrinsic fiber birefringence and the
photoinduced one. The total birefringence is equal to
1.05 × 10−4 , which is very close to the values obtained in
polarization-maintaining fibers [25].
Their peak-to-peak amplitude jumps from one mode to an-
other between higher and lower values, revealing the alternation
between radial and azimuthal modes, as already reported for
both TFBGs [12,24,26] and eccentric FBGs [9]. Visually, a
Fig. 2. Orthogonally polarized transmitted amplitude spectra of an
eccentric FBG corresponding to the x and y eigenmodes (inset: close
up of the crossing point). Envelopes (dashed curves) show the alter-
nation between radial and azimuthal modes.
 4050 Vol. 41, No. 17 / September 1 2016 / Optics Letters Letter

crossing in the trends appears around 1562 nm (from the enve- placed in a Carbolite furnace without any protection. They
lopes of the modes), which is highlighted by an arrow in Fig. 2. were held unstrained by a fiber clamp at each side of the oven
The spectrum reveals that the orthogonally polarized x- and to enable spectral measurements with the aforementioned
y-cladding mode resonances are quite perfectly matched in equipment.
wavelength around 1562 nm. At both sides of this wavelength, In order to obtain precise temperature information at the
an opposite distribution of the x and y modes is measured for sensor location, a thermocouple was placed in proximity to
the stronger resonances (highest peak-to-peak amplitudes); red the sensor in the furnace. During all the experiments, the
resonances are red-shifted compared to black ones beyond temperature drifts were limited to 0.5°C, which was confirmed
1562 nm, while this is the opposite below. Numerical simula- by a shift of λBragg ≈ 5 pm.
tions conducted with the FimmWave mode solver confirm that We note that the peak-to-peak amplitude of the resonances
this results from a redistribution between the azimuthal and is not affected by high temperature, which confirms the thermal
radial modes. We will show next how temperature influences robustness of the refractive index modulation. The eccentric
this peculiar behavior. FBGs were left for 1 h at 910°C without noticeable degrada-
According to the phase matching conditions and by the tion. Beyond 950°C, significant degradations were recorded
analogy with TFBGs, the Bragg wavelength can be expressed but are not reported here, as they fall outside of the scope
as follows: of the present Letter.
The top part of Fig. 4 depicts the wavelength shift of the
λB
2neff ;core · Λ; (1)
core mode resonance (x eigenmode) as a function of temper-
and the center wavelengths of cladding mode “i” denotes as ature in the range 200°C–910°C. A linear fitting of the raw data
yields a thermal sensitivity of 14.63 pm/°C for the x-polarized
λc;i
neff ;core  neff ;i  · Λ; (2)
mode and 14.43 pm/°C for the y-polarized mode. The
where Λ is the grating period and neff ; i is the effective refractive differential wavelength shift between orthogonally polarized
index of the ith cladding mode. resonances is again consistent with values reported for highly
The temperature dependence of the Bragg wavelength ΔλB birefringent optical fibers [27].
and of the ith-order cladding mode resonance Δλc;i in the The bottom part of Fig. 4 shows the evolution of the ther-
transmitted amplitude spectrum is given by [21] mal sensitivity of six individual cladding mode resonances and
  the core mode as a function of the mode position in the refer-
ΔλB ∂neff ;core ∂Λ

2 Λ·  neff ;core · ; (3) ence spectrum (measured at 20°C) for both orthogonal polar-
ΔT ∂T ∂T
izations. A continuous decrease in the sensitivity is obtained for
  increasing cladding mode numbers, with a thermal sensitivity
Δλc;i ∂neff ;core ∂neff ;i ∂Λ

Λ·   · neff ;core  neff ;i : slightly below 14.20 pm/°C for cladding mode resonances
ΔT ∂T ∂T ∂T
around 1530 nm (located 65 nm below the Bragg wavelength).
(4) The effect of temperature on the modal birefringence was
The first term is due to the thermo-optic effect and is the then evaluated by selectively following individual cladding
major contributor to the total temperature-induced wavelength mode resonances in both orthogonally polarized transmitted
shift. The second term in Eq. (2) corresponds to the thermal amplitude spectra. Let us first recall that the birefringence is
expansion. mathematically defined as the difference between the effective
Figure 3 depicts the change in x-polarized transmitted indices of corresponding eigenmodes Δn
nx − nY . Hence, at
amplitude spectra of an eccentric FBG measured at 270°C each temperature and from the phase matching conditions, the
and 910°C. For thermal characterization, the gratings were birefringence value can be estimated from the measurement

0
Thermal sensitivity (pm/°C) Bragg wavelength (nm)

Raw data
1600
Linear fit
-2

1595
Amplitude spectrum (dBm)

-4

-6 1590
270 °C
200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Temperature (°C)
0
Cladding mode Core mode
14.6
-2

14.4
-4

14.2 x eigenmode
-6 y eigenmode
910 °C
1530 1540 1550 1560 1570 1580 1590 1600
1530 1540 1550 1560 1570 1580 1590 1600 Wavelength (nm)
Wavelength (nm)
Fig. 4. Bragg wavelength shift as a function of temperature (top)
Fig. 3. Transmitted spectra for the x eigenmode of an eccentric and thermal sensitivity of selected resonances in the amplitude spec-
FBG measured at (top) 270°C and (bottom) 910°C. trum of an eccentric FBG (bottom).
 Letter
Fig. 5. Evolution of the birefringence between orthogonal polariza-
tions (corresponding to the x and y eigenmodes) for selected modes of
the transmitted amplitude spectrum as a function of temperature.
of the difference between orthogonally polarized resonances
(either the Bragg peak or a given cladding mode resonance)
and is given by the following relationship:
λx − λ y
Δn
; (5)
2Λ
where λx and λy are the wavelengths of the x and y eigenmodes,
respectively.
Figure 5 displays the polarization-induced wavelength split-
ting of some resonances as a function of the temperature value.
To preserve its readability, Fig. 5 depicts the behavior of three
resonances that are the azimuthal and radial cladding modes at
1530 nm and the core mode. They were selected to figure out
the difference in behavior that happens in such structures and
to reflect how the corresponding birefringence behaves as a
function of temperature. For the Bragg mode, the birefringence
value decreases with increasing temperature, which is similar for
the azimuthally polarized mode at 1530 nm. However, for the
radially polarized mode, the birefringence increases. The trends
are not linear, and a maximum sensitivity is obtained between
300°C and 500°C. Above the crossing wavelength around
1562 nm that is identified in Fig. 1, the polarization-induced
wavelength splitting always decreases when the temperature
increases, whatever the tracked mode family.
This difference in behavior reveals the true nature of polar-
ized high-order modes in a standard single mode optical fiber in
response to temperature changes. It is attributed to the redis-
tribution between azimuthal and radial modes identified in
Fig. 2 combined with the differential temperature sensitivity
between x and y eigenmodes reported in Fig. 4.
In this work, we have presented a compact high-temperature
sensor made of eccentric PbP FBGs photowritten in standard
telecommunication-grade single mode optical fiber with a
femtosecond IR laser. These gratings exhibit an overall good
robustness to high temperatures up to 910°C with a sensitivity
that linearly decreases with the mode order. They are also in-
herently strongly birefringent (∼10−4 ). We have studied the
dependence of the birefringence as a function of temperature
and have reported interesting features.
Vol. 41, No. 17 / September 1 2016 / Optics Letters 4051
Radial and azimuthal modes behave oppositely over a part
of the spectrum, which can be advantageously used for
high-resolution multiparametric sensing based on the selective
tracking of cladding mode resonances in the spectral comb.
Studying birefringence effects in high-order resonances pro-
vides a number of paths to explore, not only for temperature
sensing. We thus hope that this work will stimulate further
research in this field.
Funding. Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique (FNRS);
European Research Council (ERC) (280161).
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