Step-chirped, sampled optical waveguide gratings for WDM channel operations and method of manufacture therefor

Abstract

The present invention provides for an optical waveguide device comprising a plurality of step-chirped, sampled fiber Bragg gratings which are chirped in a step-wise manner from one sampling segment to the next according to a chirp rate. Each sampling segment has a uniform grating period within the sampling segment. The step-chirped grating chirp rate may be selected to compensate for dispersion of signals over a transmission fiber connected to the optical waveguide device. The use of the step-chirped, sampled grating relaxes the tight chirp requirement of the chirped, sampled grating. The sampled grating may be step-chirped by writing an initial sampling segment on the fiber, and then stretching the fiber before writing each subsequent sampling segment. After writing the sampling segments, the fiber is returned to its original length, so that subsequently written sampling segments after each stretch have increasingly smaller grating periods.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.