Thermal decay analysis of fiber Bragg gratings at different temperature annealing rates using demarcation energy approximation

In this study the thermal degradation of gratings inscribed in three types of fiber namely, PS 1250/1500, SM 1500 and zero water peak single mode fiber is demonstrated. A comparative investigation is carried out on the aging characteristics of the gratings at three different temperature ramping rates of 3 °C/min, 6 °C/min and 9 °C/min. During the thermal annealing treatment, a significant enhancement in the grating reflectivity is observed for PS 1250/1500 fiber from ∼1.2 eV until 1.4 eV which indicates a thermal induced reversible effect. Higher temperature ramping rates lead to a higher regeneration temperature. In addition, the investigation also reflects that regardless of the temperature ramping rate the thermal decay behavior of a specific fiber can be successfully characterized when represented in a demarcation energy domain. Moreover, this technique can be accommodated when predicting the thermal decay characteristics of a specific fiber.