Optically heated fiber Bragg grating in active fibers for low temperature sensing application

Optically heated fiber Bragg gratings due to the absorption over the fiber core in rare-earth doped fibers are experimentally demonstrated. Bragg wavelength variations with pump power are measured for different fibers. We found that the Er/Yb-codoped fiber presents the strongest thermal effect, due to the high absorption. A maximum wavelength shift of 1.34 nm can be obtained when the 980 nm pump power is 358 mW under room temperature, suggesting the fiber is heated up to over 100 degrees C. Furthermore, the thermal effect is enhanced by pumping the surrounding air to close to vacuum. A wavelength shift of 1.69 nm is attained, due to the weakened ability of heat transfer at the silica-air interface. The optical heating presents a very short response time and can found applications in low temperature circumstances.