Fast and accurate group delay ripple measurement technique for ultralong chirped fiber Bragg gratings

A simple and very precise group delay ripple (GDR) measurement technique for linearly chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBGs) is proposed. It is based on real-time optical Fourier transformation of an ultrashort pulse directly induced by the CFBG dispersion. We have experimentally demonstrated highly accurate characterization of the GDR profile of a commercial 10-m-long CFBG with a dispersion of +2000 ps/nm, having achieved a remarkably small standard deviation in our measurements of about 4 ps over a bandwidth of 28 nm. The proposed method has the unique potential to provide real-time GDR monitoring (in the MHz range) by use of commercially available high-speed sampling electronics.