Over the past few years, there has been a growing demand for optical components for telecommunication systems. In order to increase the efficiency of these components, reduce costs and allow integration to current systems, efforts have been made in researching new materials, for example, silica. Due to its isotropic nature, silica, ordinarily, does not present second order effects, for example, the electro-optic effect, which can be used for optical switching and modulation. However, eletrothermal poling can be used to induce in silica a second order nonlinearity (c(2)) of the order of 1 pm/V. It can be observed that poled silica has an ion-depleted layer and a permanently recorded electric field. The experimental characterization of this depletion layer, i.e. width, profile and magnitude of the induced c(2), is important for the comprehension of the physical process occurring during polarization. Different results obtained with different characterization techniques can be found in literature. It is not known whether diverging results in literature are due to different methods of examination or due to different poling conditions and sample type. This thesis compares the findings of four experimental techniques used to monitor the width of the depletion region in fused silica samples poled under similar conditions - hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching, Maker Fringe, optical and atomic force microscope, and hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching with real time monitoring of the SH signal. The stability of the induced nonlinearity is important to guarantee the stability of optical switches and modulators built with poled silica; therefore, thermal annealing of the induced nonlinearity in poled silica is also investigated in this thesis. The influence of the sample surface before poling, an important factor in reproducibility, is also investigated in this thesis. In order to investigate the possibility of developing an optical fiber Variable Optical Attenuator (VOA), optical fiber electrothermal poling was also investigated. Additionally, studies of the influence of the electric field strength on HF etching rate were made, as well as recording of Bragg gratings on special fibers. This thesis has been partially funded by CNPq (Doctorate scholarship), by Ericsson/PUC-Rio Accord - Additive term 04 e 14, ref: PUC.04, Poling of Optical Fiber, and by GIGA - Finep - Funttel - CPqD Project, Variable Optical Attenuator Subproject.