Dmitrii Yu Stepanov

Modelling of multi-line Brillouin/erbium fibre lasers

Laser sources with unique properties can be produced using a combination of nonlinear Brillouin gain in single-mode optical fibre (SMOF) and gain in erbium-doped fibre (EDF). Narrow bandwidth nonlinear gain from stimulated Brillouin scattering in SMOF determines the wavelength of operation, and gain in EDF allows efficient operation and large power extraction. Various cascading schemes based on the Brillouin/erbium fibre laser (BEFL) as well as distinctive multi-wavelength versions of the BEFL were proposed, being able to produce 10GHz combs of over 30 lines at 1550 nm. These multi-wavelength sources may be of use in future dense wavelength-division multiplexing systems. We explore fundamental aspects of BEFLs configured to generate multiple wavelengths with particular focus on the effects of the Brillouin and EDF pumps on the number of lines and the relationship between the intensities of the individual lines in the comb.