Amplification of optical delay by use of matched linearly chirped fiber Bragg gratings

We describe the use of a matched linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating (FBG) pair as a key element in an adjustable optical delay line. This delay line has the unique property that the achievable optical group delay is orders of magnitude greater (factor of 10(2) in our experiment) than the actual physical displacement. We demonstrate operation of such an optical delay line over a delay range of 3.5 mm using a pair of matched 1300-nm chirped FBGs with a bandwidth of 20 nm each.