A new nondestructive, noncontact, and sensitive technique for fiber Bragg g
rating geometry and index-fault location measurements is presented. Two pla
ne-wave probe laser beams are incident upon the grating from the side at an
gles that satisfy the Bragg-reflection condition An interference pattern is
formed behind the fiber between the first-order diffracted beam (from one
probe beam) and the zero-order transmitted beam (from the second probe beam
). The axial grating index modulation and the grating period are functions
of the fringe visibility and the fringe period, respectively. The method is
sensitive and is applicable even in the case of relatively weak gratings.
Unchirped and chirped Bragg gratings have been studied with the proposed te
chnique. We demonstrate accuracies of 1 x 10(-4) for measurement of the ind
ex modulation and 0.01 Mn for measurement of the period. As well as for the
analysis of mast already-fabricated gratings, this technique is useful for
in situ analysis of a long fiber Bragg grating as such a grating is transl
ated along its axis during the fabrication process. (C) 2001 Optical Societ
y of America OCIS codes: 050.0050, 060.2340, 060.2310, 090.2880, 120.3180,
230.1480.