Full modal analysis of the Brillouin gain spectrum of an optical fiber

We present a numerical study of stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers based on a full modal analysis of the acoustic and optical properties. The computation of each acoustic mode supported by the fiber structure allows us an accurate and detailed investigation of the characteristics of the Brillouin gain spectrum. We focus our attention on the contribution of the higher-order acoustic modes which are sometimes ignored because of computational issues in particular on optical fibers that act as acoustic antiwaveguides. Our analysis clearly highlights their role and their dependence on the physical and geometrical structure of the fiber.     

Brillouin scattering spectrum in photonic crystal fiber with a partially germanium-doped core

The Brillouin scattering spectrum in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a partially Ge-doped core is measured with a pump-probe technique at a wavelength of 1320 nm. One main peak and four subpeaks are observed. The main peak has a Lorentzian shape with the bandwidth deltanuB = 66 MHz. Its intensity is six times higher than that from a standard single-mode fiber measured under the same conditions, which is consistent with the ratio of (1/Aeff(PCF))/(1/Aeff(SMF)), where Aeff is the effective area of the fibers. The temperature coefficient for the main peak is 0.96 MHz/degrees C. We believe that the subpeaks are caused by an interaction between light-wave and guided modes of longitudinal acoustic waves in the graded-Ge-doped region, the silica region, and the microstructured cladding. An analysis of the guiding and antiguiding properties of the PCF for acoustic waves is presented.     

Stimulated Brillouin scattering frequency-domain analysis in a single-mode optical fiber for distributed sensing

A numerical and experimental analysis of the stimulated Brillouin scattering in a single-mode optical fiber for distributed sensing applications is carried out in the frequency domain. The theoretical model describing the Brillouin interaction is solved by taking into account the temporal dynamics of the acoustic wave that is involved. The simulations and the experimental results reveal the role played by the ac component of the acoustic wave, which is responsible for significant changes of the small-signal stimulated Brillouin scattering transfer function that occur when the modulation frequency rises above the natural Brillouin gain spectrum linewidth. One should take these effects into account to perform accurate signal processing of frequency-domain signals in high-resolution distributed sensing applications.     

Narrowband optical filter, with a variable transmission spectrum, using stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fiber

A novel shape-adjustable narrowband optical filter utilizing stimulated Brillouin scattering in an optical fiber is proposed and demonstrated. In this scheme, binary-phase-shift-keying modulation is applied to the pump wave to broaden and shape the Brillouin gain spectrum. By choosing an appropriate modulation data pattern, we realized a flat-top steep-cutoff optical bandpass filter with a 3-dB bandwidth of 1.5 GHz and a 10-dB bandwidth of 2 GHz is realized. In addition, a tunable optical notch filter is also realized by deamplification of the anti-Stokes wave.     

Controllable optical delay line using a Brillouin optical fiber ring laser

A controllable optical delay line using a Brillouin optical fiber ring laser is demonstrated and a large timedelay is obtained by cascading two optical fiber segments. In experiment, a single-mode Brillouin opticalfiber ring laser is used to provide Stokes wave as probe wave. We achieve a maximum tunable time delayof 61 ns using two cascading optical fiber segments, about 1.5 times of the input probe pulse width of 40ns. In the meantime, a considerable pulse broadening is observed, which agrees well with the theoreticalprediction based on linear theory.     

在线型光纤法布里-珀罗折射率传感器及光谱分析方法研究

提出一种在线型光纤法布里-珀罗折射率传感器。传感器由空芯光子晶体光纤两端熔接单模光纤而成。理论分析并实验验证了其折射率传感特性。结果表明,干涉条纹对比度随溶液折射率的增加而减小,与理论模拟一致。提出利用标准差解调方法对干涉谱进行分析,标准差解调方法具有更好的线性度和准确性,可靠性更高,便于编程实现自动化、快速的数据分析和溶液折射率的实时检测。     

Ge-codoped fibers for mitigating stimulated Brillouin scattering in high power fiber amplifiers

Rare-earth doped fibers for high power fiber amplifiers normally have a small refractive index difference between the core and inner cladding, but have a larger core diameter than conventional telecom fibers. We take advantage of this feature as well as the difference between the optical and acoustic waveguides and proposed several fiber designs to mitigate Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) to produce higher output powers. The numerical modeling shows that an increase in SBS threshold by 3-6 dB can be achieved using Ge-codopant while maintaining diffraction limited beam quality. The key parameters that can affect the SBS performance are specified and optimal parameters for SBS suppression are obtained. The study also highlights the need to take into account the effects of minor refractive index profile variation in evaluating SBS performance.     

Cooperative stimulated Brillouin and Rayleigh backscattering process in optical fiber

We observed an unusually narrow spectrum of Stokes field and Gaussian statistics of Stokes power for the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) process in 300-m single-mode optical fiber with high Rayleigh losses. The measured characteristics of the Stokes radiation indicate that SBS lasing took place in the fiber. The effect is explained as the result of dynamic distributed feedback that is due to double Rayleigh scattering (RS) of the Stokes field. The results of numerical simulation of the cooperative SBS-RS process in fiber are in good agreement with experimental results.     

Polarization dependence of gain and amplified spontaneous Brillouin scattering noise analysis for fiber Brillouin amplifier

The polarization dependences of gain and amplified spontaneous Brillouin scattering(ABS) noise for fiber Brillouin amplifier(FBA) are analyzed through theories, simulations, and experiments.Modified vector propagation equations for calculating the gain of the probe signal and the ABS noise are derived and analyzed in the Stokes spaces.In simulations and experiments, we prove that the gain of the probe signal and the ABS noise are strongly dependent on the relative state of polarization(SOP) of the pump and probe signals.The closer the relative SOP of the pump and probe signals is, the more obvious ABS noise suppression effect will be brought by increasing the power of the input probe signal.     

Potential of Brillouin scattering in polymer optical fiber for strain-insensitive high-accuracy temperature sensing

We investigated the dependences of Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) on strain and temperature in a perfluorinated graded-index polymer optical fiber (PFGI-POF) at 1.55 μm wavelength. They showed negative dependences with coefficients of -121.8 MHz/% and -4.09 MHz/K, respectively, which are -0.2 and -3.5 times as large as those in silica fibers. These unique BFS dependences indicate that the Brillouin scattering in PFGI-POFs has a big potential for strain-insensitive high-accuracy temperature sensing.     

Efficient single-mode Brillouin fiber laser for low-noise optical carrier reduction of microwave signals

We experimentally demonstrate efficient optical carrier reduction of microwave signals with a single-mode 1.5-microm wavelength Brillouin all-fiber ring laser. Because of the tunable optical coupling, the lasing threshold of the short-length (20-m) fiber cavity is lower than 5 mW, and high conversion efficiencies (up to 60%) are obtained at any pump power up to approximately 200 mW. Using the single-mode Stokes beam as a seed for the stimulated Brillouin scattering process allows up to 40-dB optical carrier depletion with almost no added noise for an optically carried microwave signal at 6 GHz. In addition, using this resonator, we provide evidence of generation of high-spectral-purity beatnotes.     

Tunable all-optical delays via Brillouin slow light in an optical fiber

We demonstrate a technique for generating tunable all-optical delays in room temperature single-mode optical fibers at telecommunication wavelengths using the stimulated Brillouin scattering process. This technique makes use of the rapid variation of the refractive index that occurs in the vicinity of the Brillouin gain feature. The wavelength at which the induced delay occurs is broadly tunable by controlling the wavelength of the laser pumping the process, and the magnitude of the delay can be tuned continuously by as much as 25 ns by adjusting the intensity of the pump field. The technique can be applied to pulses as short as 15 ns. This scheme represents an important first step towards implementing slow-light techniques for various applications including buffering in telecommunication systems.     

Quantitative analysis of optical power budget of bismuth oxide-based erbium-doped fiber

We investigated optical power budget of Bi₂O₃-based erbium-doped fiber (BIEDF). Lateral spontaneous emissions and scattering laser powers in the BIEDF were measured quantitatively by using an integrating sphere. Compared with the power of amplified spontaneous emission and signal detected at the output fiber end, it was found that considerable powers were consumed by the laterally emitting lights. As an optically undetected loss limits power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the fiber amplifier, the effect of nonradiative decay from the termination level of pump excited state absorption (pump ESA) was estimated from decay rate analyses of the relevant levels. The nonradiative loss was comparable to amplified signal power in the BIEDF when pumped with a 980-nm LD. Nonradiative decay following cooperative upconversion (CUP) process is also discussed using rate equations analysis.     

Stable multiwavelength fiber ring laser with equalized power spectrum based on a semiconductor optical amplifier

We experimentally demonstrated a new structure of a multiwavelength semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) ring laser based on a fiber Sagnac loop filter that can generate up to 25 stable output lasing wavelengths at room temperature. By varying the length of a polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber within the Sagnac loop filter, the wavelength spacing between the output lasing wavelengths can be changed to a desired value. By tuning a polarization controller (PC) within the Sagnac loop filter, stable multiwavelength 1550-nm operation with up to 17 lasing lines within 3 dB power level variation and with a wavelength spacing of ∼0.8 nm was achieved. The optical signal-to-noise ratios (OSNRs) of all the lasing wavelengths are greater than 40 dB.     

大芯径石英阶跃光纤光谱损耗测量研究

大芯径石英阶跃光纤的谱损耗是光纤传输性能的重要参数之一。介绍了大芯径光纤光谱衰减的测量方法,对大芯径阶跃光纤在400～600nm光谱范围内的谱损耗特性进行了研究。结果表明,光纤在400～600 nm范围内的谱损耗随波长的减小而增大,通过实测得到的600nm处的损耗系数为12 dB/km,400nm处的光谱损耗系数为96dB/km。     

Observation of stimulated Brillouin scattering in polymer optical fiber with pump-probe technique

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in a perfluorinated graded-index polymer optical fiber (POF) with 120 μm core diameter was experimentally observed for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, at 1.55 μm wavelength with the pump-probe technique. Compared to spontaneous Brillouin scattering previously reported, the Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) was detected with an extremely high signal-to-noise ratio, even with a short POF (1 m) and scrambled polarization state. We also investigated the BGS dependences on probe power and temperature, which indicate that SBS in a POF measured with this technique can be utilized to develop high-accuracy temperature sensing systems.     

Performance of Brillouin optical time domain reflectometer with erbium doped fiber amplifier

The performance of Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry (BOTDR) affected by different pump power and direction of erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is experimentally demonstrated. A temperature error of 0.5 °C and spatial resolution of 10 m is obtained over 80 km sensing fiber with EDFA. The temperature resolution and dynamic range of BOTDR with backward pumped EDFA is better than forward pumped EDFA. Within the range of pump power, the resolution of BOTDR can be improved by increasing pump power.     

Distributed Brillouin fiber sensing based on spectrum line fitting and wavelet packet denoising

A novel signal processing method is proposed to improve the spatial resolution, frequency resolution and dynamic characteristics of BOTDR. For the BOTDR system with 50 ns pump pulse, by using spectrum line fitting technology based on Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm, the spatial resolution is improved from 5 m to 5 cm. Combination of LM fitting algorithm, a large frequency scanning interval is adopted without sacrificing measurement accuracy of the BOTDR system. It reduces the number of sampling points of Brillouin spectrum significantly. So, the fitting speed is improved greatly. This is the first time using a large scan interval to increase the spectrum line fitting speed. To improve the fitting speed, the difference between the reference and measured spectrum is used to estimate the variation of Brillouin frequency shift. The measured amplitude of Brillouin spectrum is used to estimate the width of region strain occurred. Finally, by using wavelet packet denoising technology, the spectra containing noise are fitted successfully.     

Dual-frequency Brillouin fiber laser for optical generation of tunable low-noise radio frequency/microwave frequency

We demonstrate a new approach, i.e., a cw dual-frequency Brillouin fiber laser pumped by two independent single-frequency Er-doped fiber lasers, for the generation of tunable low-noise rf/microwave optical signals. Its inherent features of both linewidth narrowing effect in a Brillouin fiber cavity and common mode noise cancellation between two laser modes sharing a common cavity allow us to achieve high frequency stability without using a supercavity. Beat frequency of the dual-frequency Brillouin fiber laser can be tuned from tens of megahertz up to 100 GHz by thermally tuning the wavelengths of the two pump lasers with tuning sensitivity of approximately 1.4 GHz/ degrees C. Allan variance measurements show the beat signals have the hertz-level frequency stability.