High temperature sensing with fiber Bragg

gratings in sapphire-derived all-glass optical

fibers
Tino Elsmann,1,* Adrian Lorenz,1 Nazila Safari Yazd,1 Tobias Habisreuther,1 Jan
Dellith,1 Anka Schwuchow,1 Jrg Bierlich,1 Kay Schuster,1 Manfred Rothhardt,1
Ladislav Kido,2 and Hartmut Bartelt1,3
1
Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Albert-Einstein-Str. 9, 07745 Jena, Germany
2
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, Albert-Einstein-Str. 7, 07745 Jena, Germany
3
Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University, Max Wien Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany
*
tino.elsmann@ipht-jena.de

Abstract: A structured sapphire-derived all-glass optical fiber with an

aluminum content in the core of up to 50 mol% was used for fiber Bragg
grating inscription. The fiber provided a parabolic refractive index profile.
Fiber Bragg gratings were inscribed by means of femtosecond-laser pulses
with a wavelength of 400 nm in combination with a two-beam phase mask
interferometer. Heating experiments demonstrated the stability of the
gratings for temperatures up to 950C for more than 24 h without
degradation in reflectivity.
2014 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (060.3735) Fiber Bragg gratings; (060.2370) Fiber optics sensors; (230.1480)
Bragg reflectors.

References and links

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#223071 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Sep 2014; revised 15 Oct 2014; accepted 15 Oct 2014; published 21 Oct 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 3 November 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 22 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.026825 | OPTICS EXPRESS 26825
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1. Introduction
Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) are well applicable as sensors for harsh environments. Especially
the measurement of high temperatures of 800C and higher is a challenging field of
application. FBGs which can resist such high temperatures represent an important field of
current research [14]. There exist different approaches to achieve highly temperature-
resistant FBGs.
One possibility is the inscription of Type-II gratings, which are based on the local
destruction of the glass matrix especially at the core-cladding interface [5]. The resulting
stress inside the fiber creates a change in refractive index, one of the basic requirements for a
FBG. Type-II gratings typically show broad and strongly structured spectra [5,6].
Another option to increase the temperature stability of FBGs in silica fibers are so-called
regenerated FBGs (rFGB) [79]. They are observed if a high-reflecting seed grating
undergoes a special thermal treatment. In this case the seed grating can be (partially) bleached
out before a regeneration of a more stable grating occurs. These rFBGs typically have very
smooth spectra and can resist temperatures up to their regeneration temperature. With these
gratings, temperature measurements up to 1295C have been demonstrated [10]. The
fundamental mechanisms of the regeneration process are still under discussion and research.
However, such rFBGs require strong seed gratings, mostly with the presence of hydrogen in
the fiber, and a special thermal treatment process, and they typically provide only low
reflectivity.
The limit for the highest possible application temperature of a grating is given by the
softening point of the fiber material. For silica the softening point is around 1200C. Higher
temperatures may be achieved with different fiber materials. Single crystalline sapphire fibers
are a very attractive candidate and have been shown to be applicable as a grating sensor for up
to 1850C [1114]. But such sapphire fibers have limitations, since they are large-core air-
clad fibers with strong multimodal properties resulting in typical spectral grating widths of 8
nm [12,13]. In addition, due to the missing fiber cladding, the guiding properties are very
sensitive to the environmental conditions and to surface defects.
Therefore, a structured sapphire-type fiber with smaller core size would be of great
interest. In 2012 a sapphire-derived fiber was reported as a structured all-glass fiber with an
aluminosilicate core [15]. This fiber was originally investigated for its very small Brillion
gain coefficient. However, such a fiber with an aluminosilicate core also offers the possibility
of high-temperature-stable FBGs without a regeneration process in a fiber with a core-
cladding structure. The inscription of gratings into this special kind of fiber with an aluminum
oxide content of 30 mol% was reported, but with degradation already at 700C [16]. The
lower temperature stability may be related to the lower aluminum content of the core or to
different grating inscription conditions using a combination of phase mask inscription
technique and 800 nm femtosecond pulses.
We have prepared such a fiber with an aluminosilicate core and have successfully
inscribed temperature-stable FBGs. The inscription was performed with a femtosecond (fs)-

#223071 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Sep 2014; revised 15 Oct 2014; accepted 15 Oct 2014; published 21 Oct 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 3 November 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 22 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.026825 | OPTICS EXPRESS 26826
laser system at 400 nm inscription wavelength in combination with a two-beam phase mask
interferometer. In this report we describe the fabrication and characterization of such a fiber
with inscribed FBGs and discuss the specific characteristics of FBGs with an analysis of their
temperature properties.
2. Fabrication and characterization of the fiber
For fabrication of the fiber, a crystalline sapphire rod with a diameter of 2.8 mm was stacked
into a pure fused-silica tube with an inner diameter of 3.0 mm and an outer diameter of 30.0
mm. The stacked preform was heated up to 2200C and subsequently drawn to fibers with
different diameters. For FBG inscription, a fiber with a core diameter of 21.0 m and an outer
diameter of 125 m was used.
The chemical composition of the fiber cross section was measured with an electron
microprobe analyzer. The aluminum content of the fiber shows a graded parabolic-like profile
with a maximum aluminum content of 49.4 mol% in the center of the core (see Fig. 1). This
profile can be explained by diffusion and convective mixing between the molten aluminum
oxide core and silica cladding during the fiber drawing process. In this way, an
aluminosilicate core was created with a continuous transition between pure silica in the
cladding and a high aluminum content glass in the center of the core. Further investigations
with an electron backscattering technique ruled out the existence of any crystalline phase
inside the core.

Fig. 1. Profile of the aluminosilicate fiber. The aluminum content (red dots) corresponds very
well to the refractive index profile (black solid line) of the fiber measured with the IFA-100
Fiber Index Profiler.

With an estimation of 2.2x103 for refractive index change per mol% aluminum oxide
[15,17], the maximum of the absolute refractive index change of the core can be estimated to
be about 0.11 above the silica index (1.46). This empirical estimation was confirmed by a
measurement of the fibers refractive index profile (see Fig. 1), resulting in a proper core
center refractive index of 1.56. The theoretical numerical aperture according to
NA = ncore
2
nclad
2
gives a maximum NA = 0.54 for the center of the graded-index fiber
under investigation. As a consequence, this high numerical aperture has a multimodal light
guidance behavior, which has to be considered for the evaluation of the FBG reflection
spectra.
The loss of the fiber was measured by the common cut-back method. Comparing the
transmission spectra for fiber samples with lengths of 30, 10, 3 and 1 m, a fiber attenuation of
0.370 dB/m at 1550 nm was estimated, which is well applicable for short fiber sensor lengths
(see Fig. 2). The additional absorption peak around 550 nm is due to impurities of the initial
crystalline sapphire rod.

#223071 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Sep 2014; revised 15 Oct 2014; accepted 15 Oct 2014; published 21 Oct 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 3 November 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 22 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.026825 | OPTICS EXPRESS 26827
 Fig. 2. Loss of the aluminosilicate fiber and microscope image of the cleaved fiber (inset).

3. Inscription and characterization of fiber Bragg gratings

For inscription of the FBGs a flexible two-beam phase mask interferometer was applied [18].
Within this interferometer, the incoming laser pulses are split by a phase mask into the first
two diffraction orders. These split pulses are reflected individually at mirrors and overlap
again creating an interference pattern, which is directly inscribed into the fiber. By turning the
mirrors, the interference angle between the two split pulses can be changed, which affects the
period of the interference pattern and therefore the resulting Bragg wavelength. Using this
interferometer the gratings were inscribed with the help of a phase mask for C-band gratings
in a standard fiber with a period of 1066 nm. Due to the high refractive index, the typical
reflection wavelength for the aluminosilicate fiber would then be around 1662 nm, which was
corrected by turning the interferometer mirrors for Bragg wavelengths around 1520 nm. An
additional cylindrical lens with a focal length of 235 mm was used in front of the
interferometer to vertically focus the incoming pulses. With this focusing setup, a horizontal
focus line at the position of the fiber was achieved in order to maximize the local intensity.
As a light source for grating inscription, we used the frequency-doubled wave of a Ti:Sa-
amplified femtosecond laser system with pulse lengths in the order of 300 fs. The pulses with
a wavelength of 400 nm are provided with a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The optimum averaged
power was found to be 560 mW, being a compromise between high power for high
reflectivity gratings and keeping intensities away from the destruction threshold of the fiber.
These parameters are very similar to the parameters reported for grating inscription into
crystalline sapphire fibers [12].
For interrogation of the gratings, we used a multimodal interrogation setup like that used
for crystalline sapphire FBG interrogation [12,13]. All components (like interrogator,
circulator and supply fiber) use 50-micron graded index fibers to achieve a stable excitation of
a large number of modes inside the fiber under test and to allow optimized collection of the
gratings reflected intensity for measurement. The resulting spectrum at room temperature is
shown in Fig. 3(a).

#223071 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Sep 2014; revised 15 Oct 2014; accepted 15 Oct 2014; published 21 Oct 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 3 November 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 22 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.026825 | OPTICS EXPRESS 26828
 Fig. 3. Reflection spectrum of a FBG. (a) The experimentally measured reflection spectrum
(black solid line) is well described by the simulated spectrum (red dashed line). (b) Refractive
index profile (black curve) and calculated effective mode indices (gray horizontal lines).
Modes are arranged by mode groups (numbered).

The spectrum shows several grating reflection peaks corresponding to the multimodal
guiding behavior of the fiber. The first six peaks starting from the long wavelength side are
indicated by P1 to P6. The spectral distance between the peaks is approximately constant with
a value of about 2.5 nm, and the spectral peak width is about (0.5-1.5) nm. This wide spectral
range can be explained by reflection of mode groups of similar effective refractive indices
which overlap in the reflection spectrum. The peak wavelength positions of the Bragg
wavelength can be derived according to the Bragg condition:
m Bragg = ( n forw + n back ) grating (1)

with the Bragg wavelength Bragg depending on the effective refractive index of the forward
propagating mode nforw and the reflected backward propagating mode nback, the order of
diffraction m and the period of the phase grating grating.
To describe the spectral behavior also theoretically, we calculated the guided modes and
their effective refractive indices, using the measured refractive index profile of the fiber. Both
the analytical scalar transfer method based on [19] and the numerical finite element method
mode solver (COMSOL) were applied. Both methods describe the mode behavior as shown
in Fig. 3(b). Due to the parabolic index profile, mode groups are found with several modes of
almost the same effective refractive index. These mode groups have an almost equidistant
spectral position for the first groups. With increasing mode number the difference of
refractive index between two consecutive modes decreases, resulting in a continuum-like
behavior for higher modes above mode group 8.
Due to the facts that higher modes have higher losses, induced, e.g., by bending and
scattering, and that lower-order modes are easier to excite and have better overlap with the
grating, not all mode groups are observed in the spectrum. The lower mode groups are
expected to produce peaks with higher intensities at the long wavelength side of the reflection
signal due to their higher effective refractive indices.
Reflection peaks may be achieved, e.g., by coupling of modes of the same mode groups in
forward and backward direction (e.g. 1-1 for P1, 2-2 for P3, 3-3 for P5, etc.). Additional peaks
may also be created by coupling of modes originated from different mode groups (e.g. 1-2 and
2-1 for P2; 2-3 and 3-2 for P4; etc.). Such peaks may overlap if the sum of the effective
indices of the modes originating from different mode groups is the same as for modes of a
single mode group (e.g. 1-3, 3-1 and 2-2 all P3), thus increasing the reflection signal. This
effect of higher reflection intensities for reflection peaks at lower wavelengths is offset by the

#223071 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Sep 2014; revised 15 Oct 2014; accepted 15 Oct 2014; published 21 Oct 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 3 November 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 22 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.026825 | OPTICS EXPRESS 26829
higher attenuation and losses for higher mode groups. Therefore a maximum of reflected
intensities is observed, e.g., around P3, P4 and P5 in Fig. 3(a).
For simulation of the Bragg spectrum, also a decreasing amplitude towards higher modes
(therefore lower wavelength) was assumed as well as a decreasing coupling efficiency for
higher mode group order distance. The reflection spectrum was then modelled as an additive
composition of single Gaussian-shaped reflection profiles for each combination of individual
modes. The simulation result shown in Fig. 3(a) is well in accordance with the measured
reflection peaks.
4. Heating experiments
The fiber gratings were investigated with regard to their temperature behavior. The fibers with
the gratings were put into a thin fused silica capillary to protect the fibers from mechanical
impacts and to place them vertically in the furnace. The temperature of the furnace was
controlled by means of a thermocouple.
For temperatures below 700C, the spectral structure remains almost stable except for the
temperature related shift of the reflection peaks (see Fig. 4). But during the heating process
some peaks, especially the second peak, became weaker in reflectivity due to slight changes
in the mode coupling conditions within the heated grating compared to the initial grating.
Therefore, the second peak was not used for further evaluation of the temperature sensitivity.

Fig. 4. Spectrum of a FBG at room temperature (light-blue) and at about 700C (dark-blue).

The difference in amplitude for both spectra in Fig. 4 is related to the spectral intensity
distribution of the light source used. No change in intensity was observed while the
temperature of almost 700C was held for six hours. During long term experiments an
intensity fluctuation within 5% of the light source occurred, resulting in slight homogeneous
fluctuations for all peaks. A significant increase of the background due to the blackbody
radiation was not observed, because the influence of this effect is negligible for temperatures
below 1400C [14].
Afterwards the fiber was heated to 900C, and this temperature was kept for 29 h. The
Bragg wavelength shows a permanent shift of about 0.5 nm 0.8 nm in the first four hours
after reaching the 900C (see Fig. 5(a)). This additional wavelength shift remains also after
cooling the fiber back to room temperature. This permanent shift indicates a change in the
refractive index profile of the optical fiber and may be caused by relaxation effects within the
fiber. The reflected peak intensities remained almost constant within the whole measurement
time frame of up to 29 h (see Fig. 5(b)).

#223071 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Sep 2014; revised 15 Oct 2014; accepted 15 Oct 2014; published 21 Oct 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 3 November 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 22 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.026825 | OPTICS EXPRESS 26830
 Fig. 5. Temperature behavior of a grating at 900C. (a) The Bragg wavelength is permanently
changed within the first 4 h. (b) The reflection amplitude shows no decrease within 29 h at
900C.

If the FBG is heated stepwise from room temperature to 900C, the characteristic Bragg
wavelength shift can be observed (see Fig. 6). All evaluated peaks show a parabolic
dependency for the Bragg wavelength from temperature. The single measurement error was
always below 72 pm and typically below 35 pm. Within the experimental error margins, the
temperature sensitivity was the same for all peaks and also for heating only to 700C before
stabilization of the grating at 900C. The mean linear coefficient was found to be (12.4 0.2)
pm/K and the quadratic coefficient to be (3.2 0.2)x103 pm/K2. These values are slightly
higher than the coefficients for standard fibers (SMF-28) but different from typical parameters
of crystalline sapphire fibers [12]. For the evaluation of the repeatability a grating was cycled
between 400C and 500C and the Bragg wavelength was determined for each heating and
cooling step after thermal stabilization to the target temperature. The repeatability was best
for P1 with 49 pm and increased with the peak number to maximal 370 pm for P5.

Fig. 6. Temperature dependency of Bragg wavelength. The measurement (dots) shows a

parabolic behavior (fitted lines).

A further increase in temperature to 950C showed a higher permanent Bragg wavelength

shift of 0.9 nm up to 1.8 nm with no indication of saturation within the measurement time of
23 h (see Fig. 7(a)). The amplitude of the reflection signal shows no relevant change during
the heating process (see Fig. 7(b)). Slight fluctuations are related to spectral instabilities of the
light source and instabilities in mode coupling.

#223071 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Sep 2014; revised 15 Oct 2014; accepted 15 Oct 2014; published 21 Oct 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 3 November 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 22 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.026825 | OPTICS EXPRESS 26831
 Fig. 7. Temperature behavior of a grating at 950C. (a) The Bragg wavelength continuously
changes to a permanent level. (b) The reflection amplitude shows no decrease within 23 h at
950C.

Heating a grating up to 1000C leads to a permanent change in the grating spectrum (see
Fig. 8(a)); also, a decrease in reflectivity is now observed (see Fig. 8(b)). Especially short
wavelength peaks start to vanish and merge into broadband reflection peaks. Due to the strong
change in the spectrums shape, the measurement of a permanent wavelength shift was not
possible. With the fiber kept at a constant temperature of 1000C, the amplitude of every
individual peak was decreasing by 20% within 110 minutes.

Fig. 8. Temperature behavior of a grating at 1000C. (a) Reflection spectrum of a FBG at room
temperature after 110 min heating at 1000C. (b) The reflection amplitude decreases by 20%
within almost 2 h.

Both - decrease in reflectivity and change in spectral shape - indicate that at 1000C the
fiber becomes chemically unstable, due to the large diffusion affinity between the aluminum
and silicon ions [20]. Diffusion processes have their largest effect at the core-to-cladding
interface. Changes within this fiber region influence mostly higher order modes which have a
greater field overlap within this area. Furthermore, a phase separation could be possible,
which would have direct influences on the losses of the fiber under test.
5. Conclusion
We have shown that inscription of gratings within a structured aluminosilicate-core fiber with
an aluminum content of 50 mol% is possible. Such a structured fiber provides great
advantages compared to the single crystalline fibers without cladding. The reflection spectra
of the FBG show a multiple-peak behavior with an almost constant spectral distance of 2.5
nm between mode groups due to the graded parabolic-like refractive index profile of the fiber.

#223071 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Sep 2014; revised 15 Oct 2014; accepted 15 Oct 2014; published 21 Oct 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 3 November 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 22 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.026825 | OPTICS EXPRESS 26832
The structured fiber concept might be apt for further development for few-mode or even
single-mode propagation properties.
Heating the fiber shows that all the individual peaks have the same parabolic wavelength
dependence on temperature. The gratings are stable up to temperatures of 700C and higher.
Fiber heating to 900C leads to a permanent wavelength shift of about 1 nm within the first
four hours, and higher wavelength shifts are observed for temperatures beyond 900C. At
1000C the reflectivity starts to decrease, but 80% of the initial reflectivity is preserved within
the first two hours. For a temperature sensor, either individual spectral peaks could be used or
a correlation technique could be applied taking into account the full spectral structure and
hence improve the measurement accuracy. Compared to regenerated fiber Bragg gratings in
all-silica fibers, the aluminosilicate core allows considerably higher grating reflectivity and
better stability at higher temperatures.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the fiber technology group (Jens Kobelke, Katrin
Wondraczek, Anne Ludwig) for drawing the fiber, the passive fiber module group (Martin
Becker, Alexander Hartung) for discussions, the fiber sensor group (Albrecht Graf) for
preparing the fiber ferrules, and the spectroscopy and imaging group (Andy Scheffel) for
measurements using the EMPA and EBSD. In particular, John Ballato is acknowledged for
the helpful discussions.

#223071 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Sep 2014; revised 15 Oct 2014; accepted 15 Oct 2014; published 21 Oct 2014
(C) 2014 OSA 3 November 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 22 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.026825 | OPTICS EXPRESS 26833