Effect of large effective area fiber length on the performance of forward-backward scattering combination multiwavelength Brillouin-Raman fiber laser

Abstract

In this paper we experimentally demonstrate the effect of large effective area fiber length on the performance of a multiwavelength Brillouin–Raman fiber laser in which the forward and backward generated Stokes lines due to Brillouin scattering are combined together through a 3 dB coupler. Thus, the demonstrated laser is dubbed a forward–backward scattering combination multiwavelength Brillouin–Raman fiber laser (FBSC-MBRFL). This laser system utilizes a large effective area fiber and a dispersion compensating fiber that act as Brillouin and Raman gain media, respectively. It is demonstrated that by employing forward pumping schemes, the demonstrated laser system is capable of generating a good flat amplitude Brillouin Stokes line with an average optical to noise ratio of 17 dB along the spectral spans. However, the backward pumping scheme is able to produced high bandwidth spans. At the optimal large effective area fiber length of 50 km, a Raman pump power of 1100 mW at Brillouin pump wavelengths of 1550 mm and 1560 nm is identified to produce the maximum bandwidth with values of approximately 28.45 nm and 24.08 nm, respectively.