Fibre strength unaffected by on-line writing ofsingle-pulse Bragg gratings

Abstract
Fibre Bragg gratings written with a KrF excimer laser on the draw tower suffer no degradation of strength due to the high-intensity laser exposure, and they exhibit tensile strength comparable to theoretical estimates for silica fibres. The high fibre strength critical for the use of fibres as distributed sensors is preserved, in contrast to the implications of a recent Letter.