Continuous anneal method for characterizing the thermal stability of ultraviolet Bragg gratings

We present a new method for determining the long-term stability of UV-induced fiber Bragg gratings. We use a continuous temperature ramp method in which systematic variation of the ramp speed probes both the short- and long-term stability. Results are obtained both for gratings written in D2 loaded and nonloaded fibers. The results for the nonloaded fibers are in good agreement with those previously obtained. Precise predictions of the grating decay were made. We find good agreement with a broad trap energy distribution where the defects with the lowest energy decay first. For the D2 loaded fiber grating we resolve two separate energy distributions, suggesting that two different defects are involved. The experiments show that complicated decays originating from various energy distributions can be analyzed with this continuous isochronal anneal method. The results have both practical applications in determining the long-term stability of fiber gratings and fundamental importance since they can be used to determine the energy distribution when using different fiber types and writing techniques. ©2000 American Institute of Physics.