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FIBER BRAGG GRATING

SENSORS SIMULATION
by
Pavndeep singh
Roll no. (10010242)
Amrit raj
Roll no. (11010208)

Under the guidance of

Dr. Ramesh Kumar Sonkar

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & ELECTRICAL

ENGINEERING
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GUWAHATI

November 2014

Guwahati - 781039

Dr. Ramesh Kumar Sonkar

12 November 2014

(Assistant Professor, EEE Dept.)

Problem statement
Electronics sensor are most used in todays world but, cannot work in electromagnetic or
electrostatic disturbance and also not suited for extreme condition like very high or low
temperature. Solution for this problem is FBG sensors.

Summary of work done

In this semester we have worked on simulation of fiber Bragg grating temperature sensors using
OptiGrating software. Our plan for next semester is to work on simulation of fiber Bragg
grating for dispersion compensation.

Abstract
In todays world there is great need of long term passive sensor, and here FBG sensors are very
important they are based on fiber Bragg grating technology. These sensor have certain
advantages over conventional sensors. FBG sensor can be used under extreme conditions like
cryogenic or high temperature that is because the nature of material used and because they
dont uses electronics component that also make these sensors immune to electrostatic and
electromagnetic disturbance, and these sensor are corrosion resistive. These sensor have longer
life and do not require recalibration frequently. These sensor are very small in size just around
0.15 mm, and also very easy to install as well. Because of small size FBG sensor have fast
temperature response time which is important to quick temperature changes. Here we first
described the theory and fundamentals of fiber Bragg grating then our sensing principal. Fiber
Bragg grating technology has many application like optical add drop multiplexer for
wavelength and channel or band dispersion compensation and temperature, strain sensing but
we have focused on the temperature sensors. Here we have used opti- grating 4.2.2 to first
design the fiber Bragg grating and simulate its spectrum then using this software we have
simulated effect of temperature on this FBG spectrum. After analyzing this spectrum we can
find out the change in temperature. This is the basic principal behind FBG temperature sensor

1. Introduction
Fiber Bragg grating is periodic perturbation of refractive along the core of fiber and formed by
interference of intense ultra violet light on the core of optical fiber. Permanent fiber Bragg
grating in the optical fiber was first formed by hill et al. and demonstrated in 1978 at the
Canadian communication research center (CRC), Ottawa, Ont., Canada, [1]. It was found that
when intense argon ion radiation was passed through photosensitive germanium doped silica
then intensity of reflected light after several minutes is increased and it kept on increasing until
almost all the light was reflected from fiber. Here photosensitivity refers to permanent change
in refractive index of the fiber core when exposed to light with characteristic wavelength and
intensity that depend on the core material. After doing some spectral measurement they
confirmed the formation of narrow band Bragg grating filter. This grating was called hill
grating [1]. When light is passed through optical fiber with periodically perturbed refractive
index some of the light is reflected back, reflectivity is maximum for a specific wavelength this
wavelength is called Bragg wavelength. Reflectivity can be approached to 100%.This Bragg
wavelength is affected by temperature or strain subjected to fiber Bragg grating as a result
Bragg wavelength shifts. This shift is linear with respect to temperature and strain [2]. Using
this relation we can calculate from shift in Bragg wavelength that how much temperature or
strain is changed. FBG grating is formed by various methods. Two main techniques are phase
mask [2] and interference of UV light.

2. Theory of Fiber Bragg Grating

A simple fiber Bragg grating is the periodic modulation of refractive index along the core of
optical fiber. In this type of grating planes are perpendicular to the optical fibers axis. When
light travels along the core of fiber it will be scattered at every grating plane. If Braggs
condition is not satisfied then reflected light from each plane cancel out each other. Braggs
law is that for constructive interference for light from subsequent plane the path difference
between two reflected light should be multiple of wavelength. But where the Braggs condition
is satisfied reflected light from each grating plane add constructively in the
backward direction to form a back-reflected peak with a center wavelength defined by the
grating parameters. This wavelength is called Bragg wavelength.

Fig. 1 illustrating uniform Bragg grating with constant index of modulation

amplitude and period [2].

The Bragg grating condition is simply the requirement that satisfies both energy and
momentum conservation. Energy conservation requires that the frequency of the incident and
the reflected radiation is the same. Momentum conservation requires that the wave vector of
the incident wave, ki, plus the grating wave vector, K, equal the wave vector of these scattered
radiation kf, which is simply says that

Where the grating wave vector, K, has a direction normal to the grating and with magnitude is
given by
The diffracted wave vector is equal in magnitude, but opposite in direction, to the incident
wave vector. Hence the momentum conservation condition becomes

This gives the Bragg condition which is

[2]

Here
is Bragg wavelength
is grating period
is effective refractive index of fiber core

Grating Structures
In this part we will discuss about apodized and chirp fiber Bragg grating structures [3]. These
grating structure are most commonly used in FBG formation either alone or combination of
both.

Chirped Bragg Gratings

Chirped fiber Bragg grating has non uniform period generally the period of grating decreases
linearly along the core of fiber or increases. This decrement or increment in the period of
grating can be nonlinear also. Due to this chirp the reflected spectrum gets broaden. This type
of grating is also used in dispersion compensation because different wavelengths reflected from

the grating will have different delays. This property can also be used in the development
of phased array antenna systems. Example of chirped grating is in fig. 2

Fig. 2 chirped grating [3]

Apodized Gratings
Apodized grating is the grating where change in refractive index along the core of fiber is non
uniform that is grading of refractive index is almost zero at the ends of grating and it maximum
at the center. This is called the apodization of refractive index change. There are generally two
type of function used to apodize these are Gaussian and raised cosine function. By using of
apodized grating we can significantly reduce the side lobes. When we use the grating length to
set the peak reflectivity which depends on both the grating strength and the grating length but
as result we cannot control side lobes and their size becomes significant so here apodized
grating is very useful and can be improve significantly Sid lobe suppression. Example of this
type of grating structure is given in fig. 3, here refractive index of core is plotted against length
of optical fiber.

Fig. 3 apodized grating structures [3]

We have used apodized grating structure in our FBG simulation to suppress the side lobes and
to get narrow Bragg wavelength peak which is important for high accuracy in wavelength
measurement [2].

3. FBG Sensing Principal

Bragg wavelength of FBG depends on the effective refractive index of the core and the
periodicity of the grating. The effective refractive index, as well as the periodic spacing
between the grating planes, will be affected by changes in strain and temperature. Shift in the
Bragg wavelength due to strain and temperature can be calculated from Braggs condition and
is given by [2]

Here first term represent the effect of strain on the spacing of grating and refractive index of
core and, second term here represent effect of temperature on spacing and refractive index of
core. Strain effect term may be expressed as [2]

Where p11 and p12 are component of strain optic tensor and v is poisons ratio and
z is strain
Temperature effect on Bragg wavelength due to thermal expansion changes the grating spacing
and refractive index of core. Fractional wavelength shift for a temperature change T can be
written as [2]

is the thermal expansion coefficient for the fiber

is thermo-optic coefficient

Here thermo-optic coefficient has higher value than thermal expansion coefficient for the fiber
so refractive index change is the dominant effect.
Here Bragg wavelength has linear relation with temperature and strain. When temperature and
strain is applied to FBG together we cant predict that how much shift in Bragg wavelength is
due to temperature and how much is due to strain. So here in this simulation we have worked
on temperature sensing without the effect of strain.

So for temperature sensing we will calculate Bragg wavelength at different temperature for
FBG and from the linear relation between temperature and Bragg wavelength we can calculate
the change in temperature.

4. Simulation
For simulation we have used opt grating 4.2.2 software. In our simulation we have used single
fiber with one LP(0,1) mode. We have used Gaussian apodized grating for the suppression of
side lobes.
Parameter used in simulation are core refractive index = 1.46, cladding refractive index = 1.45,
grating length =10 mm, grating period = 0.53381599 m
Single fiber profile for our simulation is shown in fig. 4

Fig. 4 fiber profile

Our grating definition is in fig. 5

Fig. 5 grating definition

Grating definition show the index modulation = 0.0003 and also shows that we have used
Gaussian apodization with tapers parameter 0.5 to suppress the side lobes and to get narrow
peak for high accuracy.
In fig. 6 we have defined our temperature sensor parameter. We have taken the values for
thermo-optic coefficient and thermal expansion coefficient as shown in the fig. 6

Fig. 6 sensor parameter

We have deselected the effect of strain in our simulation as shown in fig. 6 because we only
want to see effect of temperature on Bragg wavelength. Temperature in fig.6 is uniform 25
degree Celsius we will increase the temperature and measure the corresponding Bragg
wavelength and then plot the Bragg wavelength vs temperature. This graph should be linear.
Fig.7 shows the Reflection and transmission spectrum of fiber Bragg grating with above
parameter at 25c

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Fig. 7 reflectivity vs transmittivity spectrum at 25c

Now we have calculated the reflection spectrum for total 12 different values of temperature but
with all the other parameters same. As the temperature increase the shift in Bragg wavelength
also increase. Fig. 8 compares the reflectivity spectrum at three given temperature with respect
reference temperature 25 degree Celsius.

Fig.8 a

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Fig.8 b

Fig. 8 c

Fig. 8 illustrating shift in Bragg wavelength with temperature

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In above fig.8 we have only compared three temperature spectrum with respect reference
temperature to demonstrate the shift in Bragg wavelength. We didnt put all the comparison
spectrum to save space.

5. Calculations
Bragg wavelength at different temperatures calculated from the simulation of reflectivity
spectrum are given in table below.

Temperature (c)
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80

Wavelength (nm)
1550.000
1550.070
1550.135
1550.205
1550.275
1550.345
1550.410
1550.480
1550.550
1550.615
1550.685
1550.755

6. Result
We have plotted Bragg wavelength vs temperature using this data table and as expected, this
graph is linear. Graph is shown in fig. 9

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Fig. 9 Wavelength vs temperature plot

So our results shows that Bragg wavelength changes linearly with temperature.

7. Conclusion
From this simulation it is clear that Bragg wavelength changes linearly with temperature. Using
this relation we can make temperature sensors. We can install optical fiber with grating where
we want to measure the temperature and connect the optical fiber with spectrometer to measure
the reflectivity spectrum. As the temperature rises we will observe the shift in Bragg
wavelength from the spectrometer and from the linear relation between wavelength and
temperature we can measure the value of temperature.

References

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[1] Kenneth O. Hill and Gerald Meltz, Member, IEEE, Fiber Bragg Grating Technology
Fundamentals and Overview
[2]
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/226100236_Fibre_Bragg_Gratings/links/00b7d52
bec730c4191000000.
[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_Bragg_grating.