Tuning and chirping fiber Bragg gratings by deep etching

We have demonstrated a new method for tuning and chirping fiber gratings. It relies on etching of a fiber down to very small cladding diameter, so that the propagating optical mode in the fiber interacts with the surrounding media. A tuning range of 4.5 nm has been demonstrated with a potential of much larger tuning range by optimization of fibers. Chirped gratings were also demonstrated with this technique. These chirped gratings are very important for use in fiber dispersion compensation and optical pulse shaping.