Investigation on the structural and spectral characteristics of deposited FBG stacks at elevated temperature

A composite nano-crystalline structured thin film was realized by depositing mixed Al2O3 and MgO coating material using physical vapor deposition approach and then annealing at high temperature. The film thus fabricated retains a high transmission even after annealing at 1500 °C. The grain size of less than 100 nm was measured by atomic force microscopy and the composite nano-crystalline structure of spinel and corundum was confirmed by the X-ray diffraction pattern analysis. Based on this, Bragg grating stacks were fabricated by depositing alternating quarter-wave layers of Al2O3 and Al2O3/MgO at the end of a sapphire crystal fiber at first and then the layers of NiO and Al2O3/MgO on the surface of a sapphire slice. The performance of the grating stacks at high temperature or after high temperature annealing was measured. It was found that the reflection peak measured from the grating stacks can survive a high temperature up to 1050 °C but will disappear after annealing at temperature of 1100 °C or above. A conclusion of inter-diffusion between layers of stack was obtained to explain the phenomenon of reflection peak disappearing after annealing at high temperature.