Aerosol Can Evacuation and Compaction Device for Shipboard Use

IOS proposes to develop high strength fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor arrays by fabricating high-quality FBGs in the core of conventional optical fibers without removing their protective polymer coatings. In Phase I, IOS will fabricate gratings that havereflectivities of at least 5% for the target wavelength, a bandwidth (FWHM) of no more than 0.8 nm, sidebands more than 2 nm from the center and lower in reflectivity by at least 30 dB, and an insertion loss of less than 0.1 dB. IOS will also use thistechnique to form several fiber Bragg gratings on a single fiber. Each grating will have a designated wavelength in the 1530 nm to 1565 nm range, and will conform to its designated wavelength to within at least 0.1 nm. IOS will verify that the fiberstrength is not degraded by the process used to impose the Bragg gratings. Success on this objective will be shown by demonstrating that the fiber can withstand a pressure of at least 300 ksi both before and after imposition of the gratings.Fiber Bragggrating arrays can be used as sensors to detect sound, strain, temperature, and a number of other important variables. These sensors can be deployed over great distances, without electromagnetic interference, in environments that are typically hostile tonormal electronic gear. The fiber gratings to be developed in this project will have better optical performance, will be less expensive to fabricate, and will be more rugged than currently produced gratings. These high strength in-fiber gratings willfind wide use in a variety of military, medical, research, and commercial applications in fiber sensors and telecommunications.