Bragg gratings in a few mode microstructured polymer optical fiber in less than 30 seconds

We report the inscription of a Bragg grating in an undoped polymethylmethacrylate based microstructured fiber in a time record. The fiber has been irradiated with a 248 nm ultraviolet radiation, through the phase mask technique using low fluence and low repetition rate. The experimental conditions were chosen to modify the core refractive index of the fiber at the incubation regime and avoiding polymer ablation. The peak reflection of the Bragg grating was centered in the infrared region with 20 dB reflection and 0.16 nm bandwidth. These spectral properties are well attractive for sensors and communications applications. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America