Ultrashort Bessel beam photoinscription of Bragg grating waveguides and their application as temperature sensors

Abstract

Ultrashort pulsed Bessel beams with intrinsic nondiffractive character and potential strong excitation confinement down to 100 nm can show a series of advantages over Gaussian beams in fabricating efficient Bragg grating waveguides (BGWs). In this work, we focus on parameter management for the inscription of efficient BGWs using the point-by-point method employing Bessel beams. Due to their high aspect ratio, the resulting one-dimensional void-like structures can section the waveguides and interact efficiently with the optical modes. Effective first-order BGWs with low birefringence can then be fabricated in bulk fused silica. By controlling the size and the relative location of grating voids via the Bessel pulse energy and scan velocities, the resonant behaviors of BGWs can be well regulated. A high value of 34 dB for 8 mm length is achieved. A simple predictive model for BGWs is proposed for analyzing the influences of processing parameters on the performance of BGWs. The technique permits multiplexing several gratings in the same waveguide. Up to eight grating traces were straightforwardly inscribed into the waveguide in a parallel-serial combined mode, forming the multiplex BGWs. As an application, the multiplex BGW sensor with two resonant peaks is proposed and fabricated for improving the reliability of temperature detection.