Enhanced photosensitivity in lightly doped standard telecommunication fibre exposed to high fluence ArF excimer laser light

The core refractive index of Corning SMF-28 optical fibre exposed to ArF laser pulses increases with the square of the fluence per pulse. Bragg gratings with a refractive index modulation amplitude higher than 10

-3 have been obtained. This is an order of magnitude improvement over previously reported values for this type of fibre in the absence of treatment to enhance the photosensitivity.