Regenerated Fibre Bragg Gratings

Silica remains the key optoelectronic and photonic medium, the essence of nearly all modern optical transport systems. Engineering of silica in its various forms ranges from 1 to 3-dimensional waveguide and periodic structures, including recent interest in 3-D photonic crystals. Most of the processing methods involve complex vapour deposition and various co-dopants, which have an advantage of overcoming the lack of finesse involved with general formation of glass structure through high temperature processing and quenching. Nevertheless, to obtain micron or sub-micron precision over the processing of glass for device purposes, invariably post processing methods are commonly used, ranging from etching of systems with dopants, often through patterned masks, to laser processing using UV to mid IR lasers. Concrete examples of micron scale laser processing of glass include direct written waveguides, Bragg gratings in waveguides and optical fibres and photonic crystals. The drawback with these post-processing techniques is that they often produce glass that is structurally less stable than the starting phase. For many applications the thermal stability of laser induced glass changes determines the limits in which they can operate – an excellent example which will form the basis for this chapter, is the optical fibre Bragg grating. Fibre Bragg gratings are used in many industrial and technological applications. Within standard telecommunications applications, for example, type I fibre Bragg gratings that can operate to 80°C for 25 years are required – such gratings can in principle operate for lengthy periods up to 300°C. Gratings that can operate at temperatures well above standard telecommunication requirements are critical to the success of many real time sensing applications. In the oil and gas industries, an alternative application, although standard oil bores are typically quoted as having an environment no more than ~(180-250)°C [Schroeder et al. 1999; Kersey 2000], variations can occur and the increasing depth of the next generation bores suggest sensors that can operate to 400°C or more are desirable for long term or permanent operation. In industries involving high temperature furnaces, such as aluminium smelting or coal based power stations, it would be of interest to be able to monitor temperatures in excess of 1000°C. Similar temperature requirements span many