Diffraction of volume Bragg gratings under high flux laser irradiation

Diffraction property of transmitting volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) recorded in photo-thermo-refractive glass (PTR) is studied under the irradiation of a continuous-wave fiber laser with flux of 1274 W/cm . Dependence of temperature characteristics of VBGs prepared by different crystallization temperatures is presented. When temperature of VBGs rises up to 33°C, there are a 2.7% reduction and 1.59% ripple of diffraction efficiency for VBGs. The period variation caused by the thermal expansion of VBGs is used to explain the reduction of diffraction efficiency, and experimental results are in agreement with theoretical analysis.