Stimulated Brillouin Scattering Gain Bandwidth Research Articles

Improving the Accuracy and Resolution of Filter- and Frequency-to-Time Mapping-Based Time and Frequency Acquisition Methods by Broadening the Filter Bandwidth

In this article, a method for improving the accuracy and resolution of the filter-and frequency-to-time mapping (FTTM)-based time and frequency acquisition system in the fast sweep scenario is proposed by broadening the filter bandwidth. It is found that the width of the generated pulse via FTTM is mainly determined by the impulse response of the filter when the sweep rate is very fast. Therefore, appropriately increasing the filter bandwidth can significantly reduce the pulsewidth, so as to improve the measurement accuracy and resolution. To verify the validity, short-time Fourier transform (STFT) and microwave frequency measurement (MFM) systems employing the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS)-based FTTM are further investigated by inserting a frequency-sweep pump wave for SBS gain bandwidth broadening. The improvement of accuracy and frequency resolution is well confirmed by comparing the measurement results with and without SBS gain spectrum broadening. The MFM accuracy is improved by more than ten times compared with other reported works under a similar fast sweep rate, and the frequency resolution of the STFT is also much improved compared with our former results.

Dynamics of Stokes Waves and Pulses Generated by Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in a Resonator Including Highly Nonlinear Fiber

We experimentally and theoretically investigate the generation of Stokes waves and the dynamics of pulses produced by cascaded stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in a resonator, including a highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) and an in-cavity erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) forming a multi-wavelength Brillouin erbium-doped fiber laser system. Using coupled wave equations with the Brillouin pump, Stokes and acoustic waves, propagation in the presence of the SBS and optical Kerr effect, the modeled system simulates the evolution of participating pump and Stokes waves to verify the experimental results. The dependence of the number of generated Stokes waves on EDFA pump and Brillouin pump powers is studied showing that the proper simultaneous change (increase or decrease) of the two pump powers over few hundred of milliwatts (using the power design diagram) results in generating the same number of Stokes waves reaching steady state. Dynamics of the interference signal at the resonator output are also presented for a long HNLF (33 m) showing strong instability due to the existence of a few longitudinal modes within the SBS gain bandwidth with the possibility of random mode hopping. For a short HNLF (3 m), a single longitudinal mode operation is possible and the stability of generated pulses is expected but still depends on the phase relationships per round trip of the participating pump and Stokes waves. A good consistency between simulation and experiment is found.

Optimal spectral structure for simultaneous Stimulated Brillouin Scattering suppression and coherent property preservation in high power coherent beam combination system

Based on the spectral manipulation technique, the Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) suppression effect and the coherent beam combination (CBC) effect in multi-tone CBC system are researched theoretically and experimentally. To get satisfactory SBS suppression, the frequency interval of the multi-tone seed laser should be large enough, at least larger than the SBS gain bandwidth. In order to attain excellent CBC effect, the spectra of the multi-tone seed laser need to be matched with the optical path differences among the amplifier chains. Hence, a sufficiently separated matching spectrum is capable at both SBS mitigation and coherent property preservation. By comparing the SBS suppression effect and the CBC effect at various spectra, the optimal spectral structure for simultaneous SBS suppression and excellent CBC effect is found.

Ultrahigh-Resolution Spectroscopy Based on the Bandwidth Reduction of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering

We present a method for ultrahigh-resolution optical spectroscopy based on stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). The resolution of conventional spectrometers is limited by the natural bandwidth of the SBS. We enhance the resolution by a reduction of the natural SBS gain bandwidth. By a superposition of the natural gain with two losses, we were able to increase the spectrometer resolution from 20 to 8 MHz. We will confirm this in a first proof of concept experiment.

Quasi-light-storage enhancement by reducing the Brillouin gain bandwidth

The quasi-light-storage (QLS) is a method for the variable and almost distortion free storage of optical data which is based on stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). The natural gain bandwidth of SBS limits the storage time of this method to up to 100 ns. We overcome this limit by the superposition of the SBS gain bandwidth with two losses. With this narrowed gain bandwidth, we were able to enhance the storage time for the QLS by 40%.

Stimulated Brillouin scattering slow-light-based fiber-optic temperature sensor

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a method for temperature sensing using stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS)-based slow light. The approach relies on temperature dependence of the Brillouin frequency shift in a fiber, hence the time delay of an input probe pulse. By measuring the delay, temperature sensing can be realized. We achieve temperature measurement in a 100 m single-mode fiber (SMF) using a cw pump. The main temperature-sensing range is ∼18°C from the room temperature, limited by the SBS gain bandwidth. To apply the technique for measurement of a shorter fiber segment, a pulsed pump is used to introduce SBS slow light. Temperature sensing is achieved in a 2 m SMF with a main sensing range of around ∼25°C. The scheme is easily implemented, exhibits a relatively high temperature sensitivity with a resolution better than 1.0°C, and is potentially applicable for distributed sensing.

Competition between the modulation instability and stimulated Brillouin scattering in abroadband slow light device

We observe competition between the modulation instability (MI) and stimulated Brillouinscattering (SBS) in a 9.2 GHz broadband SBS slow light device, in which a standard 20 kmlong single-mode LEAF fibre is used as the SBS medium. We find that MI is dominantand depletes most of the pump power when we use an intense pump beam at ∼ 1.55 µm, where the LEAF fibre is anomalously dispersive. The dominance of the MI in theLEAF-fibre-based system suppresses the SBS gain, degrading the SBS slow light delay andlimiting the SBS gain-bandwidth to 125 dB GHz. In a dispersion-shifted highly nonlinearfibre, the SBS slow light delay is improved due to the suppression of the MI, resulting in again-bandwidth product of 344 dB GHz, limited by our available pump power of 0.82 W.

Improved slow-light performance of 10 Gb/s NRZ, PSBT and DPSK signals in fiber broadband SBS

We have demonstrated error-free operations of slow-light via stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in optical fiber for 10-Gb/s signals with different modulation formats, including non-return-to-zero (NRZ), phase-shaped binary transmission (PSBT) and differential phase-shiftkeying (DPSK). The SBS gain bandwidth is broadened by using current noise modulation of the pump laser diode. The gain shape is simply controlled by the noise density function. Super-Gaussian noise modulation of the Brillouin pump allows a flat-top and sharp-edge SBS gain spectrum, which can reduce slow-light induced distortion in case of 10-Gb/s NRZ signal. The corresponding maximal delay-time with error-free operation is 35 ps. Then we propose the PSBT format to minimize distortions resulting from SBS filtering effect and dispersion accompanied with slow light because of its high spectral efficiency and strong dispersion tolerance. The sensitivity of the 10-Gb/s PSBT signal is 5.2 dB better than the NRZ case with a same 35-ps delay. The maximal delay of 51 ps with error-free operation has been achieved. Futhermore, the DPSK format is directly demodulated through a Gaussian-shaped SBS gain, which is achieved using Gaussian-noise modulation of the Brillouin pump. The maximal error-free time delay after demodulation of a 10-Gb/s DPSK signal is as high as 81.5 ps, which is the best demonstrated result for 10-Gb/s slow-light.

Stimulated Brillouin scattering gain profile characterization by interaction between two narrow-linewidth optical sources

We report on results from the characterization of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) spectra for standard single-mode fiber produced by the interaction between two counter-propagating tunable laser sources (TLS) using one as the probe signal to measure and the other as the pump, sweeping a wide span around the signal. Assuming TLS linewidth negligible against SBS gain bandwidth, we measure SBS spectrum for a wide range of pump and probe signal power levels and study the evolution of relevant SBS parameters such as linewidth and gain profile. High signal to noise ratio measurements allows analyzing the evolution of the SBS gain profile from Lorentzian to Gaussian as predicted by current theory of SBS and the use of SBS response for filtering applications.