Bragg grating writing in photonic crystal fibres

We report some of our recent progress in the area of Bragg grating writing in photonic crystal fibres (PCFs). The various challenges that PCFs present are discussed and the methods used to overcome these challenges are presented. The fabrication of highly-durable type-IIa gratings in highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibre is demonstrated, the rotational variance of grating inscription is also investigated through both experiments and numerical modeling. In other experiments we fabricate a narrow-linewidth distributed feedback (DFB) laser in erbium-doped PCF, achieving stable, single-mode and CW operation. The potential of such a DFB PCF in sensing applications is assessed by accurately measuring an absorption line of acetylene gas