Fabrication of refractive index patterns in optical fibers having protective optical coatings

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.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.