Impact of thermal pre-treatment on preforms for fast Bragg gratings inscription using undoped PMMA POFs

Abstract

In this work, improvements in the photosensitivity of undoped POFs, where there was a welldefined pre-annealing of both preforms in two-step process, were reported. We have noticed that when the primary and secondary preforms are annealed, the fiber photosensitivity is higher; otherwise, if any preform (primary or secondary) is not annealed, the fiber photosensitivity is lower. Two PMMA mPOFs are used where the primary and secondary preforms, during the two-step drawing process, have a different thermal treatment. The PMMA POFs drawn where the primary or secondary preform is not specifically pre-treat need longer inscription time than the fibres drawn where both preforms have been pre-annealed at 80°C for 2 weeks. Using two different UV lasers, for the latter fibre much less inscription time is needed compared to another homemade POF. The properties of a POF fabricated where there are both preform process with thermal treatment is different from those where just one preform step process is thermal treated, as previously shown in the literature, where these POFs are much less sensitive to thermal treatment. Some important parameters were considered such as drawing tension and water content, where using fibers drawn in different tensions give us a similar FBG inscription time.