Phase mask for forming diffraction grating, and optical fiber and optical waveguide having diffraction grating duplicated using the phase mask

Abstract

The present invention relates to a precision phase mask for forming diffraction grating in optical fiber and optical waveguide, to provide them with nonlinear chirped grating for dispersion compensation use and having low fluctuation or crosstalk in the group delay characteristics. The diffraction grating is formed by means of interference fringe between diffracted lights of different orders, in which the cycle of the diffraction gratingincreases nonlinearly, wherein plurality of diffraction gratings G, G, G. . . having different cycles are assembled on a plane in increasing order of the cycle with the directions of the diffraction gratings directed to the same direction, and assembled in such a manner that, where the cycle of grating changes nonlinearly and discontinuously, the regions having larger rate of change of the cycle contain proportionally more discontinuous phases per unit length.