Analysis of a widely tunable long-period grating by use of an ultrathin cladding layer and higher-order cladding mode coupling.

A widely tunable long-period grating in single-mode fiber is analyzed by use of an ultrathin cladding layer and higher-order cladding mode coupling. The numerical simulation shows that a 225-nm tuning range in the newly designed ultrathin long-period grating (cladding thickness, 35 microm) with third-order cladding mode coupling can be obtained. The analyzed tuning range is seven times wider than those of the other known long-period gratings. We believe that the proposed highly sensitive long-period grating will be widely used as a gain-flattening filter for ultrawideband optical amplifiers and fast tunable filters in dynamic optical communication systems.