Tuning specialty co-doped optical silica fibers for sensing applications

We present new designs of optical silica fibers tailored for sensing applications. Highly versatile MCVD technology allows co-doping of fused silica in a large variety of elements and the deposition of differently doped layer structures. Co-doping of Ge/B- or Ge/Al enables tuning the refractive index and thus adapting the mode field of the fibers. Ge/Ce co-doping allows tuning the photosensitive properties for Fiber Bragg grating inscription. Combining Ge- and Al-doping modifies the fiber properties for improved distributed sensing applications. We report realization of the designs and present first results of fiber properties. Work is supported by German BMBF contract 03RU1U071J.