High-quality retroreflecting fiber Bragg gratings were written in standard Ge-doped telecom fiber (Corning SMF-28) after a few minutes exposure with pulsed 800-nm, 120-fs laser radiation by use of a deep-etch silica zero-order nulled phase mask optimized for 800 nm. Induced index modulations of 1.9 x 10(-3) were achieved with peak power intensities of 1.2 x 10(13) W/cm2 without any fiber sensitization. The fiber gratings are stable and did not erase after 2 weeks at 300 degrees C. The primary mechanism of induced index change results from a structural modification to the fiber core.

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To investigate the viability of large scale manufacture of SCALPEL masks, key components of the SCALPEL mask process have been performed by commercial suppliers. SCALPEL mask blanks have been fabricated by MCNC to specifications supplied by Lucent and have been delivered, patterned, and utilized. Patterning, inspection, and metrology have been performed by DuPont Photomask and Photronics using the standard set of tools used for photomasks. A wet chemical pattern transfer process has been developed that is compatible with the processing tools in the mask shops and is extensible to the 0.1 m generation of integrated circuits. SCALPEL masks that have been fabricated using these processes and tools exhibit excellent pattern fidelity and feature edge quality.