Optical loss mechanisms in femtosecond laser-written point-by-point fibre Bragg gratings

yFibre Bragg gratings inscribed with the point-by-point method using a Ti-sapphire femtosecond laser operating at 800 nm are shown to display strong increasing attenuation towards shorter wavelengths with a large and spectrally sharp recovery observed below 400 nm. The origin of this loss is shown to be Mie scattering, and the sharp recovery in the transmission results from wavelength dependent scattering within the numerical aperture of the core. The permanent losses from these Type II gratings have implications for high temperature sensors and fibre lasers. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.