ABSTRACT
The past decade has witnessed intensive research and development efforts to engineer a new class of fiber optic component—the UV-inscribed in-fiber gratings [1–4]. While the major driving force has come from the need for new, high-performance fiber grating devices, such as wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) filters, erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) gain equalizers, and dispersion compensators to boost the bandwidth for high-speed telecommunication network systems, the utilization of fiber grating technology in it the same optical sensing has increased pace [5,6]. No doubt, the high demand for fiber grating devices in telecommunications will ensure a continuing reduction in the cost of the basic technology, which in turn will encourage the growth of sensing applications using grating-based sensor devices and systems.
