Novel fiber design for broadband long period gratings

We report a novel fiber design for obtaining long period gratings (LPGs) having a broad transmission spectrum. These gratings are based on guided to guided mode coupling in a staircase profile fiber. Numerical simulations predict 20 dB bandwidths as high as 100 nm and an estimated insertion loss of less than 1 dB. Such broadband LPGs are expected to find applications in many all fiber components.