Photodarkening study of gratings written into rare-earth doped optical fibres using a femtosecond laser

A well-known side-effect from fibre Bragg grating UV-fabrication is short wavelength attenuation, where irradiation with laser light, usually in the UV, generates both defect-induced absorption and scattering. These losses are especially problematic for high power optical fibre lasers operating at shorter wavelengths where resonant assisted coupling into the glass matrix through the rare earth ions can take place (e.g. Yb). In this, work we present a study of the relative magnitude of short wavelength attenuation in gratings written by the point-by-point method using a Ti-sapphire femtosecond laser operating at 800 nm. Such gratings are very stable and have been used as the feedback elements in fibre lasers with powers exceeding 100 W. We show that the scattering properties responsible for the attenuation are analogous to those associated with type II gratings written with UV lasers.