Novel fiber Bragg grating fabrication system for long gratings with independent apodization and with local phase and wavelength control.

We proposed and demonstrated a novel practical fiber Bragg grating (FBG) fabrication setup constructed with high performance linear stages, piezoelectric translation (PZT) stages, and a highly stable continuous wave laser. The FBG fabrication system enables writing of long FBGs by a continuous translate-and-write process and allows implementation of arbitrary chirp and apodization. A key innovation is that the local Bragg wavelength is controlled by a simple movement of the phase mask by a PZT in the direction perpendicular to its surface. The focus position of the two writing beams is not changed during the Bragg wavelength change, an intrinsic feature of the design, ensuring simplicity, robustness and stability. Apodization can be achieved by vibrating the phase mask in the direction parallel to its surface by a PZT. Phase steps can also be inserted in FBGs at any desired locations by stepping the same PZT. A long uniform FBG and a linearly chirped FBG are written to demonstrate the performance of the setup.