Bashan Gil, Diamandi H Hagai, Zehavi Elad, Sharma Kavita, London Yosef, Zadok Avi
Faculty of Engineering and Institute for Nano-Technology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 5290002, Israel.
Currently with the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel.
Nat Commun. 2022 Jun 21;13(1):3554. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31246-y.
Fibre lasers based on backward stimulated Brillouin scattering provide narrow linewidths and serve in signal processing and sensing applications. Stimulated Brillouin scattering in fibres takes place in the forward direction as well, with amplification bandwidths that are narrower by two orders of magnitude. However, forward Brillouin lasers have yet to be realized in any fibre platform. In this work, we report a first forward Brillouin fibre laser, using a bare off-the-shelf, panda-type polarisation maintaining fibre. Pump light in one principal axis provides Brillouin amplification for a co-propagating lasing signal of the orthogonal polarisation. Feedback is provided by Bragg gratings at both ends of the fibre cavity. Single-mode, few-modes and multi-mode regimes of operation are observed. The lasing threshold exhibits a unique environmental sensitivity: it is elevated when the fibre is partially immersed in water due to the broadening of forward Brillouin scattering spectra. The results establish a new type of fibre laser, with potential for ultra-high coherence and precision sensing of media outside the cladding.
基于后向受激布里渊散射的光纤激光器具有窄线宽,可用于信号处理和传感应用。光纤中的受激布里渊散射也会向前发生,其放大带宽要窄两个数量级。然而,在任何光纤平台上都尚未实现前向布里渊激光器。在这项工作中,我们报道了首个前向布里渊光纤激光器,它使用的是现成的裸熊猫型保偏光纤。沿一个主轴的泵浦光为正交偏振的同向传播激光信号提供布里渊放大。光纤腔两端的布拉格光栅提供反馈。观察到了单模、少模和多模工作模式。激光阈值表现出独特的环境敏感性:当光纤部分浸入水中时,由于前向布里渊散射光谱变宽,阈值会升高。这些结果确立了一种新型光纤激光器,它在超高相干性和包层外介质的精密传感方面具有潜力。