Tunable Bragg gratings for fiber lasers

A tuning method of a fiber Bragg grating by the bending compression-tension is considered. With this method, a relative tuning range of the resonance wavelength of the grating of about 5% has been obtained. The changes in the shape of the spectrum and in the grating reflectivity during the tuning process are studied. The reflectivity of the fiber Bragg grating has been found to considerably increase with increasing degree of compression. It is shown that such an increase is caused by compression-induced changes in the refractive index modulation amplitude in the grating. The fiber Bragg grating developed has been applied for tuning the radiation wavelength of an ytterbium fiber laser. The tuning range of the laser has been found to be 45 nm around the central wavelength 1080 nm.