Research Labs

Fiber Grating and Sensor Laboratory

Contact: Kevin P. Chen

Fiber Bragg gratings and long-period gratings are key enabling technologies for fiber optical communication and sensoring. Fiber Grating and Sensor Laboratory (FGS) is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for writing fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and long-period grating (LPG). In the FGS laboratory, fiber gratings are written by a high-power Lumonics 248-nm KrF excimer laser. The laser provides 10-ns laser pulses at 50 Hz repetition rate with the maximum pulse energy of 600 mJ. A flexible and motorized optical configuration enables the fabrication of long (>10 cm) Bragg gratings for dispersion compensation and fiber lasers.

The FGS laboratory has a rich set of WDM phase masks covering the entire telecommunication window from 1530 nm to 1580 nm with 0.4 nm per grid for Bragg gratings. A high-pressure (>200 bars) hydrogen loading chamber is available to photosensitize standard fibers or waveguides.

Supporting equipment for the PLC laboratory includes an Ericisson fusion splicer (FSU995), optical spectrum analyzers, high-precision tunable lasers, optical multimeters, Er-doped ASE light sources, diode lasers (635 nm and 1550 nm), polarization controllers, an annealing oven, a CO₂ laser for rapid thermal annealing, and a collection of fiber optic accessories (insulators, WDMs, circulators, and couplers, etc).

Through off-campus collaborations, members of the FGS laboratory also have excellent access to specialty fiber drawing facilities, 157-nm vacuum ultraviolet laser micromachining facilities for sub-micron laser micromachining, and a near-field scanning optical microscope.

Current research projects:

• Fiber Bragg grating sensor arrays
• Hollow fiber gas sensors
• Fiber optical voltage sensors
• Fiber diffusers
• Thermal poling in silica fibers and planar lightwave circuits

Setup for writing 10-cm Bragg gratings
for dispersion compensation

A fiber diffuser fabricated in standard
fibers without photosensitization

Computer Engineering Labs

• Electronic Design Automation Laboratory
• John A. Swanson Embedded Systems
• Optical Computing Systems
• Pittsburgh Integrated Circuits Analysis
• Radio-Frequency Prototyping and Measurements
• Radio-Frequency Shielded Facility
• Radio-Frequency Systems and Devices

Devices Labs

• Laser
• Opto-Electronics
• Planar Lightwave Circuits

Signals and Systems Labs

• Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
• Applied Signal and System Analysis

Other Labs

• John A. Jurenko Computer Architecture
• John A. Swanson Computer Interfacing
• Fiber Grating and Sensor