Abstract: Long-period fibre gratings inside standard single-mode optical communication fibres are successfully fabricated with infrared femtosecond laser pulses. The refractive index perturbations are well confined within the fibre core by choosing the proper laser focusing parameters and translation speed of the fibre during the direct laser writing process. With the self-focusing effect considered and at a constant average irradiation dose of 1.62×10³ J/(cm²m), the threshold intensity for fabricating long-period gratings with infrared femtosecond laser pulses is determined to be 5.13×10¹³ W/cm².