Optimization and fabrication of stitched long-period gratings for gain flattening of ultrawide-band EDFAs

We present the optimization and fabrication of the stitched long-period fiber gratings (SLPGs) for gain flattening of an ultrawide-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). With an improved genetic algorithm, the gain spectrum of a practical EDFA with bandwidth of 80 nm is flattened within /spl plusmn/0.69 dB by an optimized SLPG. Furthermore, the SLPG is designed specially for a point-by-point grating writing technique. A superior control of the fabrication procedure of the designed SLPG has been demonstrated in the experiment.