Simulation solution for single and cascaded multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber lasers based on an analytical model

Abstract

Abstract Here we propose a simulation model based on a previously reported analytical description of the Brillouin gain, that takes into account pump depletion, which allows us to make very accurate calculations for Brillouin fiber lasers (BFLs) working both in a single and cascaded multi-wavelength configurations. Output powers and conversion efficiencies are analyzed and compared with experimental results for various lasers setups using 25 km of a non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber (NZDSF) as the Brillouin gain media. In our experimental investigations, we used a pump laser at 1565 nm, with a bandwidth of 1 kHz, and output powers varying from 0 to its maximum value of 14 mW. We analyzed the laser behavior under various conditions using output couplers with output ratios varying from 10% to 90%, and to generate the cascaded Brillouin laser we have used a 10 m Erbium-doped optical fiber amplifier as a gain block in a separated cavity. Additionally, a spectral reconstruction is made based on power predictions of our model for the cascaded BFL with excellent agreement with experimental data.