Cladding-mode resonances in short- and long-period fiber grating filters

The transmission of a mode guided by the core of an optical fiber through an ultraviolet-induced fiber grating when substantial coupling to cladding modes occurs is analyzed both experimentally and theoretically. A straightforward theory is presented that is based on the calculation of the modes of a three-layer step-index fiber geometry and on multimode coupled-mode theory that accurately models the measured transmission in gratings that support both counterpropagating (short-period) and co-propagating (long-period) interactions. These cladding-mode resonance filters promise unique applications for spectral filtering and sensing.