Long-period gratings have been made in nonphotosensitive optical fibers by
irradiation of the core of a fiber with a focused beam of high-energy proto
ns. The irradiated fibers exhibit relatively low loss, even before thermal
annealing, and possess strongly wavelength-dependent transmission. The abse
nce of a mask provides the opportunity to tailor the grating to a desired p
rofile, and a variety of grating profiles were explored. The profile most r
esembling a sinusoid was found to produce the cleanest transmission spectra
. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.