Biprisms are used as a method of wavefront division with an excimer laser source to holographically write first‐order Bragg gratings in single‐mode optical fibers. Gratings with a period of 556 nm and peak reflectivity of 62% are produced using single pulses from a krypton fluoride (KrF) laser. A comparison is made between grating production with line‐narrowed and nonline narrowed lasers. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.