Long-period fiber gratings based on periodic microbends

Abstract

We demonstrate a new type of high-performance long-period fiber grating based on are-induced periodic microbends. The fabrication method is simple and does not require:special fibers. Flexibility in controlling the filter parameters makes it possible to produce arbitrary filter profiles by use of a simple apodization technique, which is difficult to do with conventional long-period gratings. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America. OCIS codes: 050.2770, 060.2330, 060.2340, 120.2440, 220.1230.