Behavior of fibre Bragg gratings under high total dose gamma radiation

Abstract

We report on the effect of MGy dose level /spl gamma/-irradiation on the parameters of fibre Bragg gratings intended for sensing applications. The /spl gamma/-radiation sensitivities of gratings written with near-UV 330 nm light in hydrogen loaded Ge-doped fibres and of a grating written in a N-doped fibre were found to be higher than that of gratings written in a 10 mol.% Ge-doped fibre without hydrogen loading. In the former cases, changes in the amplitude and the width of the Bragg peak were observed during /spl gamma/-irradiation while no change was observed in the latter case. For the grating written in the N-doped fibre, the radiation-induced shift of the Bragg peak did not saturate while for gratings written in hydrogen-loaded Ge-doped fibres it saturated to a higher level than for gratings written in unloaded Ge-doped fibre.