The ability to determine the centre position of a localized temperature change within a chirped fibre Bragg grating (CFBG) has been investigated as a function of grating strength. The intragrating sensor is based on the analysis of reflected power spectra arising from a CFBG. The technique uses a discrete Fourier transform (FFT) in which the measured spectrum of the CFBG due to a localized temperature change (heat source) was simulated using a FFT grating design model. The model operated on the reference spectrum and hypothesis temperature distributions, T(z), to generate a spectrum of a CFBG subjected to a hypothesis temperature disturbance. The simulated spectrum was fitted to the measured spectrum using a three-parameter automatic disturbance function fitting algorithm operating on position, width and amplitude of temperature change. RMS deviations to within 0.03 mm of applied values of position have been obtained.

An implementation of an algorithm to extract continuous temperature profiles from power reflectance spectra is described. Immunity to tilt error due to power level drift in asymmetric profiles is reported for the first time.

The intra-grating temperature profile of a chirped fiber Bragg grating was determined using integration of the changes in power reflectance spectra whilst it was subjected to a nonuniform temperature distribution.

The use of reflected power spectra arising from a chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) to extract a nonuniform temperature distribution along the grating has been investigated. The technique uses a discrete Fourier transform (FFT) in which the measured spectrum of the CFBG due to a localised temperature change was simulated using the FFT grating design model. The model operated on the reference spectrum and hypothesis temperature distributions, T(z), to generate a spectrum representative of a localised temperature disturbance. The simulated spectrum was fitted to the measured spectrum using a three-parameter disturbance function operating on position, width and amplitude of temperature change. The rms deviation of the applied value for position of a localised temperature change was 0.14 mm.

The reflectance spectra of chirped fiber Bragg gratings can depend substantially on the direction from which the measurement is taken. The measured difference between forward and backward reflectance spectra measured in a linearly chirped grating was shown to be due to the measured excess loss. Simulation using the popular transfer-matrix model demonstrated that the observed asymmetric behavior could be obtained only when excess loss has an asymmetric spectral shape about the local Bragg wavelengths. Application of cladding mode excess losses to the result of a transfer-matrix model accounted for the experimental observation.