Passive Component Reliability Analysis of Issues Relating to Stoichiometric Defects in Glass

Stoichiometric defects in glasses play a critical role in determining its optical properties. Defect types in silica and germanosilicates are briefly reviewed. Passive components in fibers based on stoichiometric defects, such as Bragg and long period gratings have been developed and used extensively in high reliability applications. Approach to analyze thermally associated changes in these gratings over time is outlined. The applicability of the approach to other defect related phenomena such as hydrogen induced loss in optical fibers is also described.