Method of forming a grating in a waveguide
OwnerDmitry Starodubovinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A refractive-index grating fabricated in an optical fiber having a multilayer coating and a method for making refractive-index patterns such as gratings in optical fibers such that the mechanical properties of the original fiber are preserved. The patterns are written into the optical fiber by partially stripping away the outer coating of the fiber, exposing the core of the fiber through the remainder of the coating with an actinic radiation to form the pattern in the photosensitive core of the fiber, followed by recoating the fiber in the stripped area to provide protection of the newly formed pattern from corruption and to preserve the mechanical properties of the fiber.
Claims32
A waveguide comprising:
- a core region sensitive to an actinic radiation;
- and
- a coating having at least an inner layer and a protective layer where said inner layer is at least half as transmissive as absorptive for said actinic radiation.
A method of forming a grating in an optical waveguide having a core and a coating, the coating having at least an inner layer and a protective layer, comprising the steps of:
- removing the protective layer of the coating in a selected portion of the waveguide;
- forming a pattern within the core of the optical waveguide by illuminating the waveguide with actinic radiation.
A fiber optic refractive index grating formed in an optical fiber, comprising:
- an optical fiber having a core region surrounded by a cladding layer, the core region being sensitive to actinic radiation;
- a coating surrounding the cladding layer, the coating having at least an inner layer and a protective layer, the inner layer being at least partially transparent to actinic radiation and the protective layer being substantially non-transparent to actinic radiation;
- a pattern of varying refractive indexes formed in a selected portion of the core region of the optical fiber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.