193 nm excimer laser inscribed Bragg gratings in microfibers for refractive index sensing

We demonstrate the inscription of fiber Bragg gratings by 193 nm ArF excimer laser in microfibers drawn from the standard single mode telecommunication fiber. Fiber Bragg gratings are directly inscribed in a series of microfibers with diameter ranged from tens of μm to 3.3 μm without hydrogen loading or other treatment to photosensitize the microfibers. Four reflection peaks are observed where three correspond to high order mode resonances. The resonance wavelength depends on the fiber diameter and it sharply blueshifts as the diameter is decreased below 10 μm. The gratings are characterized for their response to ambient refractive index. The higher order mode resonance exhibits higher sensitivity to refractive index.