Effect of Temperature and Gamma-Ray Irradiation on Optical Characteristics of Fiber Bragg Grating Inscribed Radiation-Resistant Optical Fiber

Abstract

A new radiation-hard germano-silicate glass optical fiber with a pure silica glass buffer and a boron-doped silica glass inner cladding was fabricated for temperature sensor application based on the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) under γ-ray irradiation environment. The temperature dependences of optical attenuation at 1550.5 nm and Bragg reflection wavelength shift from 18 °C to 40 °C before the γ-ray irradiation were about 4.57×10⁻⁴ dB/ °C and 5.48 pm/ °C, respectively. The radiation-induced optical attenuation at 1550.5 nm and the radiation-induced Bragg reflection wavelength shift under the γ-ray irradiation with the total dose of 22.85kGy at 35 °C were about 0.03dB/m and 0.12nm, respectively, with the γ-ray irradiation sensitivity of 5.25×10⁻³ pm/Gy. The temperature and the γ-ray irradiation dependence of optical attenuation at 1550.5nm in the FBG written fiber with boron-doped silica glass inner cladding were about 6 times and 4 times lower than that in the FBG written fiber without boron-doped silica glass inner cladding under a temperature change from 18 °C to 40 °C and the γ-ray irradiation with the total dose of 22.85 kGy at 35 °C, respectively. Furthermore, the effect of temperature increase on the Bragg reflection wavelength of the FBG written fiber with boron-doped silica inner cladding was much larger about 1000 times than that of the γ-ray irradiation. However, no influence on the reflection power of the Bragg wavelengths and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) bandwidth under temperature and the γ-ray irradiation change was found. Also, after the γ-ray irradiation with the dose of 22.85kGy, no significant change in the refractive index was found but the residual stresses developed in the fiber were slightly relaxed or retained.

Keywords

Optical fiber / radiation resistance / temperature sensor / fiber Bragg grating / radiation-induced attenuation

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