1000
8, APRIL 15, 2009
Influence of the Grating Parameters on the
Polarization Properties of Fiber Bragg Gratings
Christophe Caucheteur, Member, IEEE, Sébastien Bette, Member, IEEE, Raimundo García-Olcina,
Marc Wuilpart, Member, IEEE, Salvador Sales, Jose Capmany, Member, IEEE, and Patrice Mégret, Member, IEEE
Abstract—Due to the lateral inscription process, photo-induced
birefringence is present in fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) written into
photosensitive single mode fiber. The birefringence value is gen-
erally too small to be perceived in the grating spectral response
but it can lead to significant polarization dependent loss (PDL)
and differential group delay (DGD) evolutions. In this paper, we
first theoretically analyze the evolution with wavelength of PDL
and DGD as a function of the grating parameters and the birefrin-
gence value. We demonstrate that the PDL and DGD evolutions
with wavelength can be strongly enhanced by a modification of
the grating parameters. Simulations carried out using the coupled
mode theory and the Jones formalism are then confirmed by exper-
iments conducted on FBGs written into photosensitive single mode
fiber. Our work brings a complete characterization of polarization
related phenomena in FBGs and presents a great interest for the
evaluation of system performances and the design of gratings for
specific applications, either for telecommunications or sensing pur-
poses. In addition, based on the comparison between experimental
and simulated evolutions, we are able to verify that the birefrin-
gence value is strongly dependent on the fluence of the laser used
for the grating inscription.
Index Terms—Birefringence, grating, optical fibers, polariza-
tion.
I. INTRODUCTION
P OLARIZATION dependent loss (PDL) and polarization-
mode dispersion (PMD) constitute the two main obstacles
that restrict the bandwidth of data transmission in optical fiber
communications [1]. PDL is generally introduced by fiber con-
nectors and optical components. It results in power fluctuations
at the end of an optical link when the input state of polariza-
tion is modified. PMD is another polarization effect that results
Manuscript received February 22, 2008; revised August 01, 2008. Current
version published April 17, 2009. The work of C. Caucheteur was supported by
the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS). This work was
supported in part by the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-
FNRS), the BONE-project (“Building the Future Optical Network in Europe”),
a Network of Excellence funded by the European Commission through the 7th
ICT-Framework Program, in part by the Attraction Pole Program of the BelSPo
IAP 6/10, the COST Action 299 FIDES, and in part by the Spanish CICYT
within project TEC2007-68065-C03-01.
C. Caucheteur, S. Bette, M. Wuilpart, and P. Mégret are with the Electro-
magnetism and Telecommunication Unit, Faculté Polytechnique de Mons,
B-7000 Mons, Belgium (e-mail: christophe.caucheteur@fpms.ac.be; sebastien.
bette@fpms.ac.be; marc.wuilpart@fpms.ac.be; patrice.megret@fpms.ac.be).
R. García-Olcina, S. Sales, and J. Capmany are with the ITEAM Research
Institute, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain (e-mail:
rgarciao@dcom.upv.es; ssales@dcom.upv.es; jcapmany@dcom.upv.es).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JLT.2008.2004953
0733-8724/$25.00 © 2009 IEEE
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JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 27, NO.
from the presence of birefringence in optical fibers and/or op-
tical components. PMD is generally analyzed through differen-
tial group delay (DGD) measurements [2]. In practice, the in-
teraction between PDL and PMD effects can induce even more
severe degradations than the added effects of PDL and PMD
taken separately [3].
During the last two decades fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have
attracted considerable attention as a result of their numerous ap-
plications in optical telecommunications and sensing [4]. FBGs
are commonly manufactured by irradiating one side of an op-
tical fiber with an intense UV interference pattern. It is gen-
erally admitted that the lateral writing process induces a small
quantity of birefringence that combines with the intrinsic fiber
birefringence and leads to polarization effects within the grating
[5]. This small amount of birefringence causes the orthogonal
polarization modes to experience different couplings through
the grating [6]. In the presence of birefringence, the resulting
transmitted spectrum is then the combination of two overlap-
ping identical spectra. These two spectra cannot be generally
distinguished due to the limited resolution of the measurement
devices. Even if the transmitted spectrum remains practically
unaffected, small birefringence values leads to important PDL
and DGD values and consequently, to a potential severe degra-
dation of system performances [7].
Because FBGs are more and more used in dense wavelength
division multiplexing transmission systems for practical appli-
cations such as chromatic dispersion compensation and optical
filtering, an important research activity has been devoted to the
study of the polarization properties generated by FBGs. Studies
on the wavelength dependency of PDL and DGD for different
kinds of gratings (uniform, chirped, apodized) have thus been
reported [8]–[13]. None of these studies has analyzed the ef-
fects of physical parameters (physical length, refractive index
modulation profile) on the PDL and DGD evolutions. A deep
study of the dependence of the polarization properties on the
grating parameters is however of high importance for system
performances evaluation, on the one hand, and for design pur-
poses, on the other hand. We present here the results of such a
study that shows the impact of physical parameters on FBG PDL
and DGD spectral evolutions. We also confirm that the FBGs
polarization properties present deterministic evolutions directly
related to the grating parameters. We finally use the PDL and
DGD to access to the birefringence evolution with respect to
the writing parameters, which is not directly possible through
amplitude spectral measurements.
In the following, we first analyze, through numerical simu-
lations, the PDL and DGD evolutions with wavelength when
the grating physical length, the refractive index modulation and
CAUCHETEUR et al.: POLARIZATION PROPERTIES OF FIBER BRAGG GRATINGS 1001

the birefringence value are modified. We show that the PDL

and DGD curves can be strongly enhanced by a modification
of the grating parameters and by the birefringence value. We
then report experimental results and we present a good agree-
ment with the simulated evolutions. The comparison between
experimental and simulated evolutions allows us to estimate the
birefringence value and to obtain its evolution with respect to
the grating length and the refractive index modulation.

II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

A. Transmitted Spectrum in the Presence of Birefringence

During the standard FBG fabrication process, only one side
of the optical fiber is usually exposed to the UV laser. As a
result, the refractive index change is not constant through the
fiber cross section since it is larger at the core side facing the
UV light. This non-uniformity of the refractive index profile Fig. 1. Transmitted spectrum and PDL curve for a 1 cm long uniform FBG
causes photo-induced birefringence that combines with the in- (Parameters used for the simulation: L = 10
mm, 3 = 530
nm, n = 10
trinsic fiber birefringence to give a global birefringence value 1 = 5 2 10
and n ).
[6].
Birefringence is defined as the difference in refractive index and correspond to the parameters and defined
between a particular pair of orthogonal polarization modes in [14] where has been replaced by so that
(called the eigenmodes or modes and ). The effective
refractive indexes of the two eigenmodes are defined by

(1) (5)

where is the core refractive index modulation, is the grating

where is the mean effective refractive index of the fiber core
length, is the periodicity, and is the wavelength.
and is the global birefringence value reached at the end of
In practice, the order of magnitude of photo-induced birefrin-
the writing process. and are wavelength dependent but,
gence typically varies between and [6]. The spectral
because the investigated wavelength range is practically limited
shift between and is given by and is then
to the grating bandwidth, their wavelength dependency can be
only a few picometers. Hence, the effect of cannot be di-
neglected [12].
rectly perceived in the transmitted spectrum because of the lim-
In the presence of birefringence, since the eigenmodes un-
ited resolution of measurement devices. can be enhanced by
dergo different couplings through the FBG, the transmission
transversal loads and can reach values of the order of , as
coefficient of an FBG degenerates into two coefficients corre-
in the case of polarization maintaining fibers.
sponding to the and modes, respectively. In a Cartesian co-
In the following, we will show that the photo-induced bire-
ordinates system whose reference axes match the FBG eigen-
fringence has a strong impact on the PDL and DGD evolutions
modes, the Jones matrix associated to the grating is diagonal
with wavelength.
and the Jones vector of the transmitted signal is then
B. Wavelength Dependency of Polarization Dependent Loss
(2)
PDL is defined as the maximum change in the transmitted
power when the input state of polarization is varied over all po-
denotes the transmission coefficient of the FBG corre- larization states. PDL is given by (6)
sponding to the mode. is the Jones vector of
the input signal (6)

where and denote the maximum and minimum

(3)
power transmitted through the optical component. In the case
of FBGs, it is easy to show that (6) degenerates into (7) [15] in
In (3), and are the amplitude and phase angle of which is equal to
the component of the input signal, respectively. is
derived from the coupled mode theory [14] (7)

(4) Fig. 1 presents the typical PDL evolution for a 1 cm long

uniform FBG computed using the previous equations.

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1002 JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 27, NO. 8, APRIL 15, 2009

Fig. 2. DGD curve for a 1 cm long uniform FBG (Parameters used for the
simulation: L= 10mm, 3 = 530nm, n = 10and n 1 = 5 2 10 ).

The PDL evolution can be fully justified from the trans-

mitted spectra corresponding to the and modes. Indeed,
null PDL values are reached at wavelengths for which
. In particular, it happens in the center of the Fig. 3. Evolution of the transmission, PDL and DGD curves as a function of
rejection band. Between two consecutive minimum values, the grating length (n= 2 2 10 1 = 5 2 10
and n ).
PDL evolutions exhibit local maximum values at wavelengths
corresponding to the local maximum differences of ampli-
tude between and .
The greatest PDL values are obtained at the edges of the re-
jection band where the difference of amplitude between
and is also the largest. In the remaining of the text, we
call these values maximum PDL values.

C. Wavelength Dependency of Differential Group Delay

DGD is defined as the difference in group delay between the
two eigenmodes

(8)

where is the derivative of the phase [14]

(9)

A typical DGD evolution is presented in Fig. 2. It was ob-

tained by implementing (8) and (9). Null DGD values are ob-
tained at wavelengths for which whereas
DGD maxima correspond to wavelengths for which the dif-
ference of amplitude between and is the greatest.
Fig. 4. Evolution of the transmission, PDL and DGD curves as a function of
These values are called maximum DGD values in the rest of the
the refractive index modulation (L=8 mm and n 1 = 5 2 10 ).
text.

III. COMPUTED EVOLUTIONS FOR UNIFORM GRATINGS
Using the above mentioned equations, we analyze in this
section the impact of some FBG parameters (physical length
and refractive index modulation profile) and the birefringence
value on the wavelength evolutions of PDL and DGD. In
particular, we focus on the evolution of the PDL and DGD
maximum values and on the wavelength spacing between these
maxima. All the simulations presented in this section are made
with and nm. Other parameters values
used for the simulations are detailed into the figure captions.
The influence of the grating length and the refractive index
modulation on the PDL and DGD evolutions with wavelength
is depicted in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively. These two parameters
have the same main effect on the PDL and DGD spectra, which
is an increase of the PDL and DGD amplitudes. This comes
from the fact that increasing either or leads to an increase

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CAUCHETEUR et al.: POLARIZATION PROPERTIES OF FIBER BRAGG GRATINGS
Fig. 5. Maximum PDL and DGD amplitudes evolution as a function of the
2
grating length (1n = 5 10 0
n = 2 10 2 0
L = [0 2 cm]).0
Fig. 6. Maximum PDL and DGD amplitudes evolution as a function of the
refractive index modulation (1n = 5 102 0
n = [5 10 2 6 0 2
10 ] 0 L = 8 mm).
of the grating strength. The transmitted spectrum is therefore
characterized by an increasing power variation at the edges of
the main rejection band whereas the wavelength separation be-
tween the eigenmodes remains practically unchanged. As a re-
sult, sharp PDL and DGD evolutions with important maximum
values are obtained for gratings characterized by long physical
lengths and/or high refractive index modulations. When is
modified, the amplitude enhancements are accompanied by a
wavelength shift to the left since the FBG resonance wavelength
directly depends on . This shift is not visible since the evo-
lutions are plotted versus the normalized wavelength defined as
where .
In both cases, the increase of the PDL and DGD is monoto-
nous but not linear, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6 that present the
evolution of the PDL and DGD maximum amplitudes as a func-
tion of the grating length and the refractive index modulation.
In particular, as shown in Fig. 5 for a 2 cm long FBG charac-
terized by and , the PDL and
DGD maximum amplitudes reach 6 dB and more than 120 ps,
which is relatively high and confirms the need to monitor the
polarization properties of FBGs used in practical applications.
The birefringence influence on the transmission, PDL and
DGD spectra is investigated in Fig. 7. For values in the
range – (corresponding to photo-induced birefrin-
gence values), the birefringence effect is not well perceived in
the transmitted spectrum as the two transmitted spectra overlap.
The overlapping between the spectra progressively decreases
when increases. For values higher than , tion of the grating parameters and the birefringence value. The
the transmitted spectrum is composed of two distinct main
rejection bands as in the case of FBGs written into polarization
maintaining optical fiber [15]. When the complete wavelength
separation between the two rejection bands is reached, the
amplitude remains practically unchanged and the effect of an
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1003
Fig. 7. Evolution of the transmission, PDL and DGD curves as a function of
2
the birefringence value (L = 8 mm and n = 2 10 ).
Fig. 8. Maximum PDL (left) and DGD (right) amplitudes evolution as a func-
0 2 0
tion of the birefringence value (1n = [0 4 10 ] n = 2 10 2 0 L=
8 mm).
increase of is to get a bigger wavelength spacing between
the peaks. It is also the case for the PDL and DGD evolutions.
Fig. 8 presents the evolution of the PDL and DGD maximum
amplitudes as a function of the birefringence value. For
values less than , the PDL and DGD maximum amplitudes
are monotonous increasing. When increases, for both the
PDL and DGD evolutions, the maximum amplitudes tend to-
wards a constant value after a small ripple due to the presence
of secondary lobes in the FBG amplitude spectral evolution.
Hence, with the parameters chosen for the simulation, the PDL
maximum amplitude tends to more than 8 dB whereas the DGD
maximum amplitude remains around 18 ps after having reached
nearly 30 ps.
Let us now analyze the evolution of the wavelength spacing
between the PDL and DGD maximum amplitudes as a func-
grating length and the refractive index modulation have a very
slight influence on the wavelength spacing between the peaks, as
shown on Figs. 3 and 4. Inversely the birefringence value influ-
ences the wavelength spacing between the peaks in the PDL and
DGD evolutions. Fig. 9 presents the evolution of the wavelength
1004
Fig. 9. Wavelength spacing as a function of the birefringence value (1n =
52 10 0 n = [5 10 2 0 2
6 10 ] 0
L = 8 mm).
spacing between the peaks in the transmitted spectrum, the PDL
and the DGD evolutions with wavelength. It confirms that the
peaks cannot be distinguished in the transmitted spectrum until
reaches more than (the wavelength spacing remains
negligible). This is not the case in the PDL and DGD evolutions
for which the wavelength spacing slightly decreases. Then, once
a wavelength separation is reached in the amplitude spectrum,
the wavelength spacing between the peaks increases for every
evolution. For high values, the wavelength spacing reaches
the same value for the spectral, PDL and DGD evolutions. This
value is materialized by a straight line in Fig. 9. It corresponds
to the wavelength spacing between the and modes Bragg
wavelengths and it is equal to . The modulation present
in every evolution as well as the hops are again due to the sec-
ondary lobes.
All these results demonstrate that, for a given birefringence
value, the stronger the grating is (long physical length and/or
high refractive index modulation [14]), the higher the PDL and
DGD maximum amplitudes will be. As the birefringence value
increases, we first assist to a monotonous increase of the PDL
and DGD maximum amplitudes. Then, for birefringence values
characteristics of polarization maintaining fibers, a saturation of
the PDL and DGD values is obtained.
IV. COMPUTED EVOLUTIONS FOR NON UNIFORM GRATINGS
Non uniform refractive index modulation profiles lead to
strong modifications of the amplitude spectral properties with
respect to uniform FBGs. Interesting modifications of the
related polarization properties are also obtained.
In this section, using the same theoretical formalism as
previously, we present the typical PDL and DGD evolutions
with wavelength of some non uniform FBGs. We consider
here the particular cases of Gaussian apodized gratings and
phase-shifted gratings since they are very interesting for
telecom purposes. Chirped FBGs have been treated elsewhere
[2], [9]. To simulate the behaviour of such gratings, the transfer
matrix method [16] was used to obtain the transmission coeffi-
cient defined in (4).
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JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 27, NO. 8, APRIL 15, 2009
Fig. 10. Evolution of the transmission, PDL and DGD curves as a function of
the refractive index modulation profile for Gaussian apodized gratings (L =
8 mm 0 2
n = 2 10 0 1n = 5 2 10 ).
Fig. 10 presents the effect of an apodization, materialized by
the Gaussian window parameter G [17], on the PDL and DGD.
As G increases, the asymmetry of the transmitted spectrum in-
creases due to a progressive decrease of the side lobes. For the
PDL and DGD evolutions, apodization leads to an asymmetry in
comparison to uniform FBGs . Moreover, apodization
reduces the number of side-lobes outside the rejection band as
well as the reached maximum values. All these effects are more
significant for strong apodizations.
Phase-shifted FBGs exhibit a transmission notch within the
reflection band of the spectral response due to the presence of
a phase shift in the refractive index modulation profile along
the grating length [18]. Fig. 11 illustrates the behaviour of a
pi-shifted FBG (phase shift in the middle of the grating length)
in comparison to a uniform FBG. Due to the phase shift, the
number of peaks in the PDL and DGD curves increases. More-
over, the maximum PDL and DGD values also increase in com-
parison to a uniform FBG. Let us add that the phase shift value
and its position along the grating length have a direct impact on
the maximum PDL and DGD amplitudes.
In conclusion, for a given birefringence value, an apodization
profile decreases the maximum PDL and DGD values while the
presence of a phase shift tends to increase these values in com-
parison to the case of uniform FBGs. Hence, the impact of non
uniform FBGs on system performances will be different from
the one of uniform FBGs characterized by similar parameters
(length, period, refractive index modulation amplitude).
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In the following, we experimentally report the influence of the
grating length, the refractive index modulation and the birefrin-
gence value on the maximum PDL and DGD amplitudes. For
that purpose, we make use of different FBGs written by means
CAUCHETEUR et al.: POLARIZATION PROPERTIES OF FIBER BRAGG GRATINGS
Fig. 11. Evolution of the transmission, PDL and DGD curves as a function of
=1 0
the refractive index modulation profile for phase-shifted gratings (L cm
n = 2 2 10 0 1 = 5 2 10 )
n .
of an automated setup. A comparison between experimental and
simulated evolutions allows us to determine the evolution of the
birefringence value as a function of the writing parameters.
A. Experimental setup
Experiments were conducted on FBGs written into boron
co-doped photosensitive single mode fiber using a frequency
doubled Argon-ion laser emitting at 244 nm. FBGs were
inscribed by the phase mask technique. During the writing
process, the fluorescence was measured through one end of the
optical fiber by means of a photodetector. Indeed, when the
optical fiber is subjected to a lateral UV illumination, some
fluorescence is conducted in the fiber core and its amount
is linked to the optical power of the UV beam reaching the
fiber core. Hence, the data recorded from the photodetector
were used to maximize (and keep constant at the maximum
value) the power delivered to the fiber core at each step during
the sweep of the UV beam along the phase mask. This was
possible by action on a mirror via the use of a piezoelectric
transducer controlled by the data sent by the photodetector.
This automation of the writing setup ensures, at each point,
the same illumination of the fiber core and leads to a uniform
refractive index modulation profile along the grating length.
This confers to the writing setup a very good control of the
parameters (especially the refractive index modulation profile)
and a very good reproducibility, which is essential to carry out
our study. Let us also add that, for every grating inscription, the
polarization state of the UV laser was kept constant, parallel to
the optical fiber axis.
FBGs transmitted spectra were recorded by means of an ASE
source and an optical spectrum analyzer ANDO AQ6317C with
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1005
the resolution set to 15 pm. To measure the polarization prop-
erties, we implemented the Jones matrix eigenanalysis method
[19] by means of a fully polarized tunable laser source EXFO
FLS 2600B and a polarimeter Profile PAT 9000B. The input
light was launched into the fiber containing the FBG through
a polarizer controlled by the polarimeter. Measurements were
performed with a wavelength step of 10 pm. During the mea-
surements, the FBGs were kept unstrained and the ambient tem-
perature was kept constant. Moreover, the fiber pigtails were
fixed to avoid polarization instabilities. These precautions en-
sured a very good reproducibility of the measurements. Exper-
imental curves presented below result from the average of five
measurements performed in the same experimental conditions.
PDL and DGD were deduced from the measured Jones ma-
trix using the formalisms described in [19], [20]. For con-
venience, these formalisms are briefly recalled below. PDL of
the grating is deduced from (10)
(10)
where is the frequency and are the eigenvalues of the
matrix product
(11)
is the complex transpose of . For every wavelength,
DGD was computed from a pair of Jones matrices and
separated by a small wavelength spacing
(12)
In (12), denotes the change in optical frequency in rad/s cor-
responding to the wavelength spacing. and are the eigen-
values of the following matrix product:
(13)
B. Comparison Between Experiment and Simulation
In order to make possible the comparison between experi-
mental and simulated evolutions, the FBGs physical parameters
were numerically reconstructed from the measured transmitted
spectra using a Nelder–Mead simplex algorithm technique de-
rived from [21]. The reconstructed parameters were , and
for uniform FBGs. was not taken into account in the re-
construction process of the transmitted spectrum since, due to
its small value, it does not affect the spectral evolution. The ob-
tained values were used to simulate the PDL and DGD evolu-
tions by means of (7) and (8). The value of was then sepa-
rately adjusted to obtain the best fit between experimental and
simulated evolutions for both the PDL and DGD evolutions with
wavelength. The best fit is obtained by minimizing the differ-
ence between the measured and reconstructed amplitudes of the
polarization properties for all the investigated wavelengths.
Fig. 12 presents a comparison between experimental and sim-
ulated polarization properties evolutions for a 1.5-cm-long uni-
form FBG. The reconstructed parameters used for the simula-
tion are: mm, nm and
1006 JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 27, NO. 8, APRIL 15, 2009

Fig. 13. Comparison between experimental and simulated evolutions for a

1.5 cm long Gaussian apodized FBG.

Fig. 12. Comparison between experimental and simulated evolutions for a

1.5 cm long uniform FBG.

. was adjusted to to obtain the best agree-

ment between experimental and simulated evolutions for the
PDL and DGD curves, simultaneously. During the reconstruc-
tion process, we verified that the obtained birefringence value
has a slight effect on the transmitted spectrum shape.
Figs. 13 and 14 show the results obtained for a Gaussian
apodized FBG and a pi-shifted FBG, respectively. For the
apodized FBG, the parameters used for the simulation are
mm, nm, with
and . For the pi-shifted FBG, the
parameters are mm (phase shift of in the middle of
the grating length), nm, and
Fig. 14. Comparison between experimental and simulated evolutions for a
. 1 cm long pi-shifted FBG.
A good agreement is observed in Fig. 12–14, confirming that
the theoretical model based on the coupled mode theory and the
Jones matrix formalism provides reliable simulations of polar- C. Influence of the Grating Length on the PDL and DGD
ization related phenomena in FBGs. Moreover, the comparison Evolutions
between experimental and simulated PDL and DGD curves al-
lows us to accurately estimate the birefringence value, which is First experiments were conducted on a set of 10 FBGs charac-
not possible through amplitude spectral measurements due to terized by the same refractive index modulation
the overlapping of the and modes spectra. From the recon- but different physical lengths varying from 2.5 mm to
struction process based on the simplex algorithm, the maximum 2 cm. This set of gratings was inscribed with the same optical
error on the computation of the birefringence value has been es- power and the same sweep time along the phase mask, yielding
timated equal to . to the use of the same fluence per unit of length for every grating
We now present the results obtained on two particular sets inscription.
of gratings used to characterize the dependency of the birefrin- Fig. 15 presents the evolution of the maximum reflectivity
gence value with respect to the grating parameters. In the fol- as function of the grating length. Owing to the coupled mode
lowing, we focus on the evolution of the maximum PDL and theory, we performed a simulation with a constant
DGD amplitudes as a function of the grating length and the re- , a grating periodicity nm and a varying grating
fractive index modulation. length . A good agreement between experiment and simulation

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CAUCHETEUR et al.: POLARIZATION PROPERTIES OF FIBER BRAGG GRATINGS
Fig. 15. Evolution of the reflectivity as a function of the grating length.
Fig. 16. Evolution of the maximum PDL (left) and DGD (right) values as a
function of the grating length.
is obtained, confirming that our writing setup offers a very good
control of the grating parameters.
Fig. 16 presents the maximum PDL and DGD values evo-
lution as a function of the grating length. The experimental
evolutions reveal that PDL and DGD maximum amplitudes in-
crease from 0.1 to 5 dB and from 0.7 to 30 ps when is varied
from 2.5 mm to 2 cm. As predicted in Section III, the PDL
and DGD maximum amplitudes evolutions with respect to the
grating length are monotonous increasing.
For every FBG, the PDL and DGD curves were simulated
using parameters corresponding to the experimental ones. The
birefringence value was then adjusted to obtain the best fit be-
tween experimental and simulated PDL and DGD curves, as ex-
plained in Section V-B. This comparison allowed us to obtain
the birefringence evolution as a function of the grating length.
The evolution is constant around (Fig. 17), con-
firming that the grating length does not affect the birefringence
value.
The PDL and DGD maximum amplitudes evolutions with
respect to the grating length simulated with this birefringence
value are also depicted in Fig. 16. For
the PDL maximum amplitude evolution, a very good agreement
is obtained between experiment and simulation. More discrep-
ancies are observed for the DGD. They mainly come from our
experimental setup that intrinsically gives “more fluctuating”
DGD measurements.
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1007
Fig. 17. Reconstructed birefringence values as a function of the grating length.
The vertical bars represent the error made on the birefringence value coming
from the numerical reconstruction process.
Fig. 18. Evolution of the reflectivity as a function of the index modulation.
D. Influence of the Refractive Index Modulation on the PDL
and DGD Evolutions
Other experiments were conducted on a set of 12 FBGs char-
acterized by the same length cm but by different refrac-
tive index modulations varying from to .
The speed of the sweep along the phase mask was this time mod-
ified for every grating inscription to obtain different refractive
index values. The fluence per unit of length is consequently dif-
ferent for every grating.
Fig. 18 presents the evolution of the reflectivity as a function
of the refractive index modulation. Once again, the agreement
with the simulation is observed.
Fig. 19 presents the evolution of the maximum PDL and DGD
values as a function of the refractive index modulation. The PDL
and DGD maximum amplitudes also strongly increase. They
even drastically increase for values higher than
(increase of more than 5 dB for the PDL and more than 40 ps for
the DGD for a variation of equal to ). This important
increase appears for refractive index modulation values near the
saturation of the core refractive index. It is thus surely linked to
the photosensitivity properties of the optical fiber used in this
work.
The different PDL and DGD curves were again reconstructed
in order to get the birefringence value evolution with respect to
1008
Fig. 19. Evolution of the maximum PDL (left) and DGD (right) values as a function of the refractive index modulation.
Fig. 20. Reconstructed birefringence values as a function of the index
modulation.
the refractive index modulation. The different reconstructions
revealed that remains no longer constant. It increases from
to when is modified from to
. The reconstructed birefringence values are depicted
in Fig. 20 where one can observe that the evolution with respect
to the refractive index modulation is not linear.
These experiments conducted on more than 20 gratings al-
lowed us to investigate the separate effects of the grating length
and the refractive index modulation on the PDL and DGD evo-
lutions with wavelength. Our experimental results confirmed
that the PDL and DGD maximum amplitudes increase with
and . The comparison between experiments and simulations
also confirmed that the birefringence obtained at the end of the
writing process is linked to the refractive index modulation of
the grating and not to its physical length. Consequently, as it
could have been predicted, the inscription parameter that modi-
fies the birefringence value is the fluence per unit of length. It is
thus possible to play on the writing parameters to minimize the
birefringence value for telecom applications or to optimize its
value for sensing purposes, as it has been done in [13] and [22].
E. Influence of the Birefringence Value on the PDL and DGD
Evolutions
The birefringence obtained at the end of the writing process
often reaches values around – , as shown previously.
To increase the birefringence value and to evaluate the effect of
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JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 27, NO. 8, APRIL 15, 2009
Fig. 21. Transmitted spectrum, PDL and DGD evolutions as a function of the
transverse force value.
this increase on the PDL and DGD curves, FBGs were transver-
sally loaded.
For that purpose, FBGs were placed between two metal plates
and the load was applied by a stepper motor that presses the
upper rectangular compressing plate. The fiber was uncoated
over the entire length over which the force was applied. Care
was taken to avoid tilt effects. The transverse force was applied
in the range 0 N–500 N by steps of 50 N.
Fig. 21 presents some results obtained on the transmitted
spectrum, the PDL and DGD curves of a 5 mm long FBG. It can
be observed that, for transverse force values ranging between
0 and 300 N, the birefringence generated by the transverse
load is too weak to obtain a discrimination between the
and modes. Hence, apart from a broadening of the rejection
band, the main effect of the transverse force is to shift the
central wavelength. For transverse forces higher than 300 N,
the rejection band of the transmitted spectrum is split in two
lobes corresponding to the eigenmodes. These results show that
the amplitude spectrum is badly suited to measure transverse
forces lower than a few hundreds of N. The PDL and DGD
evolutions present two main peaks whose amplitudes evolve as
a function of the transverse force value. This strong amplitude
variation is accompanied by a slight variation of the wavelength
spacing between the peaks. It is the reason why we focus in the
following on the maximum amplitudes of the PDL and DGD
curves.
CAUCHETEUR et al.: POLARIZATION PROPERTIES OF FIBER BRAGG GRATINGS
Fig. 22. Maximum PDL and DGD values as a function of the transverse force
value and the reconstructed birefringence value.
Fig. 22 presents the evolutions of the PDL and DGD peak
amplitudes for several transverse force values. Conformingly to
Fig. 8, the experimental data show that the PDL peak value tends
towards a maximum of about 4 dB while the DGD peak value
towards 7 ps after having reached a maximum value of nearly
11 ps. Between 0 N and 250 N, the evolutions of the PDL and
DGD peak amplitudes increase monotonically.
The experimental data were again compared to theoretical
evolutions. For that purpose, we simulated the evolutions of
PDL and DGD maximum values as a functi on of the bire-
fringence value when all other grating parameters remain con-
stant and equal to the reconstructed parameters of the unstrained
grating (solid line of Fig. 22). In order to make possible the com-
parison with the experimental data, the measured PDL and DGD
evolutions were numerically reconstructed to estimate the bire-
fringence value related to the amount of transverse force. Hence,
Fig. 22 shows a good agreement between experimental data and
simulated evolutions for birefringence values up to
For higher birefringence values, the experimental and simulated
evolutions are still comparable in shape but not in amplitude.
The experimental data are indeed smaller than the simulated
ones. This difference is mainly due to the fact that the trans-
verse force also influences some grating parameters such as the
periodicity and the refractive index modulation while this effect
is not taken into account in the simulation.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have analyzed the evolutions with wave-
length of the FBG polarization properties in the presence of bire-
fringence. We have confirmed that, due to the lateral inscription
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1009
process, FBGs exhibit significant PDL and DGD, which have to
be monitored when the gratings are used in telecommunication
applications.
We have reported that the FBGs polarization properties
can be accurately simulated using the coupled mode theory
and the Jones formalism. We have shown that the PDL and
DGD curves are strongly influenced by both the grating pa-
rameters and the birefringence value. We have focused more
particularly on the PDL and DGD maximum amplitudes and
on the wavelength spacing between the peaks. We have also
presented experimental evolutions obtained on gratings written
into photosensitive single mode fibers by means of a fully
automated writing setup. We have demonstrated a good agree-
ment with the simulated evolutions. Moreover, the comparison
between experimental and simulated evolutions has allowed
us to confirm that the birefringence value obtained after the
writing process is strongly influenced by the fluence used for
the grating inscription.
We thus believe that our study, both theoretical and exper-
imental, is of great interest for the complete characterization
of the polarization properties of FBGs for system design (in
telecom or sensing applications) as well as for system perfor-
mances evaluation.
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Christophe Caucheteur was born in 1980. He received the M.S. degree in elec-
trical engineering from the Faculté Polytechnique de Mons, Belgium, in 2003.
In October 2004, he received a national grant delivered by the Fonds National
de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS) where he received the Ph.D. de-
gree in applied sciences in 2007 for his research focused on the realization of
mechanical and chemical sensors based on the use of fiber Bragg gratings.
He is coauthor of about 70 papers in international journals and conference
proceedings. He is also coauthor of two international patents regarding the de-
velopment of innovative fiber Bragg gratings sensors. He is reviewer for IEEE,
OSA and Elsevier journals. From December 2006 until June 2007, he has been
elected chairman of the IEEE/LEOS Benelux Student Chapter.
Sébastien Bette was born in 1977. He received the M.S. degree in electrical
engineering and the Ph.D. degree in applied sciences for his research related
to the study of the spectral properties of fiber Bragg gratings from the Faculté
Polytechnique de Mons, Belgium, in 2000 and 2008, respectively.
His main research interests focus now on the polarization properties related
to fiber Bragg gratings as well as their impact on optical systems. In parallel,
another part of its work is devoted on the characterization of transmission per-
formance of digital and analog optical links. He is currently involved in the
NoE BONE of the European Union. He is author and coauthor of more than 50
journal and conference papers.
Raimundo García-Olcina was born in 1973. He received the Licenciado en
Ciencias Físicas degree in 1998 and the Ingeniero Superior en Electrónica de-
gree in 2000, both from the Universidad de Valencia. Currently, he is pursuing
the Ph.D. degree in comunicaciones at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia,
Madrid, Spain.
Since 2002, he has been with the Optical and Quantum Communications
Group, first as Ph.D. student and later as a Research Technician. Currently, he is
responsible for the fiber Bragg gratings fabrication facilities. He is coauthor of
more than 30 journal papers and international conferences. His main research
interests are focused on fiber Bragg grating design and fabrication, and optical
sensing.
Marc Wuilpart was born in 1976. He received the Ph.D. degree in applied
sciences in 2003 from the Faculté Polytechnique de Mons, Belgium.
He is currently an Associate Professor in classical and optical telecommuni-
cations with the Faculté Polytechnique de Mons, Belgium. His main research in-
terests are in spatially distributed measurements in optical fibers and in studying
the polarization properties of optical devices for telecommunication and sensing
applications. He is currently involved in the EU COST 299 FIDES action and
the NoE BONE. He is author and coauthor of one book chapter and more than
60 journal and conference papers.
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JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 27, NO. 8, APRIL 15, 2009
Salvador Sales (SM’03) was born in 1969. He received the Ingeniero de Tele-
comunicación degree in 1990, the Ingeniero Superior de Telecomunicación in
1992, and the Ph.D. degree in comunicaciones in 1995.
He joined the Departamento de Comunicaciones at the Universidad Politéc-
nica de Valencia (UPVLC) in 1993, where he was engaged to the Optical Com-
munications Group, first as a research assistant and later as a lecturer. Since
1997, he is an Associate professor at the Departamento de Comunicaciones,
UPVLC. He also has been Faculty vice dean of the UPVLC in 1998. He joined
the Optoelectronics Research Centre, at the University of Southampton in 1999
the IMEC at the Ghent University in 2004 and the COM Department at Tech-
nical University of Denmark in 2006 for several short-term missions. Nowadays,
he is in charge of the doctoral and master studies in the Departamento de Comu-
nicaciones of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. He is coauthor of more
than 50 journal papers and international conferences. He has been collaborating
and leading some national and European research projects since 1997. He also
has been participated as a reviewer for the IEEE and IEE journals since 1995.
His main research interests include optoelectronic signal processing for optronic
and microwave systems, optical delay line filters, fibre Bragg gratings, WDM
and SCM lightwave systems and semiconductor optical amplifiers.
Dr. Sales received the Annual Award of the Spanish Telecommunication En-
gineering Association to the best Ph.D. on optical communications.
Jose Capmany was born in 1962. he received the Ingeniero de Telecomunica-
cion degree from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 1987.
From 1988 to 1991, he worked as a Research Assistant at the Departamento
de Tecnologia Fotonica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where he received
the Ph.D. degree in 1991. In 1991 he moved to the Departamento de Comuni-
caciones, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, where he started the activities
on optical communications and photonics, founding the Optical Communica-
tions Group (www.gco.upv.es). He has been an Associate Professor from 1992
to 1996, and Full Professor in optical communications, systems, and networks
since 1996. In parallel, he has been Telecommunications Engineering Faculty
Vice-Dean from 1991 to 1996, and Deputy Head of the Communications De-
partment since 1996. Since 2002, he is the Director of the ITEAM Research In-
stitute, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. His research activities and interests
cover a wide range of subjects related to optical communications including op-
tical signal processing, ring resonators, fiber gratings, RF filters, SCM, WDM,
and CDMA transmission, wavelength conversion, optical bistability and more
recently quantum cryptography and quantum information processing using pho-
tonics. He has published over 250 papers in international refereed journals and
conferences.
Prof. Capmany has been a member of the Technical Programme Committees
of the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC), the Optical
Fiber Conference (OFC), the Integrated Optics and Optical Communications
Conference (IOOC), CLEO Europe, and the Optoelectronics and Communica-
tions Conference (OECC). Professor Capmany has also carried out activities
related to professional bodies and is the Founder and current Chairman of the
LEOS Spanish Chapter, and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA)
and the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), U.K. He has acted as a reviewer
for over 25 SCI journals in the field of photonics and telecommunications. He
is the recipient of the Extraordinary Doctorate Prize of the Universidad Politéc-
nica de Madrid in 1992 and is a Member of the Editorial Board of Fiber and
Integrated Optics, Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, and the Interna-
tional Journal of Optoelectronics. He has also been a Guest Editor for the IEEE
JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS.
Patrice Mégret was born in 1964. He received the M.S. degree in electrical
engineering and the Ph.D. degree for his research focused on the study of op-
tical noises and their impacts in optical links from the Faculté Polytechnique de
Mons, Belgium, in 1987 and 1992, respectively.
Since October 2005, he has been the head of the Electromagnetism and
Telecommunication Department. He teaches basic electricity, microwaves,
transmission lines, antennas and optical communications. His main research
activities are optical fiber link metrology (i.e., bit-error-rate metrology, dis-
tributed metrology like chromatic dispersion, . . .), semiconductor and fiber
laser dynamics. He is author and coauthor of more than 320 publications.
Dr. Mégret is member of IEEE-LEOS, OSA, and has been elected president
of the LEOS Benelux Chapter for the period 2004–2005. He is also member of
several technical program committees of national and international conferences.