Phase analysis of stimulated Brillouin scattering in long, graded-index optical fiber.

A continuous-wave beam was wavefront-split by a prism and propagated through separate paths before being coupled into a long, graded-index fiber. Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) was generated in the fiber and the phase of the reflection was compared to that of the pump using lateral shearing interferometers immediately after reflection and also after propagating back through the separate paths. To analyze the phase conjugating properties of SBS in the fiber, one of the paths included a pathlength oscillation.

Stimulated Brillouin scattering continuous wave phase conjugation in step-index fiber optics.

Continuous wave (CW) stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) phase conjugation in step-index optical fibers was studied experimentally and modeled as a function of fiber length. A phase conjugate fidelity over 80% was measured from SBS in a 40 m fiber using a pinhole technique. Fidelity decreases with fiber length, and a fiber with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.

An explanation of SRS beam cleanup in graded-index fibers and the absence of SRS beam cleanup in step-index fibers.

Beam cleanup via stimulated Raman scattering in multimode fibers is modeled by numerically considering the competition between the Stokes modes of graded-index and step-index fibers. The relative gain of each Stokes mode is calculated by considering the overlap the various pump and Stokes modes of the fibers. Mode competition in a graded-index fiber favors the LP(01) Stokes mode while mode competition in a step-index fiber does not favor the LP(01) Stokes mode.

Passive combination of multiple beams in an optical fiber via stimulated Brillouin scattering.

We demonstrate passive combination of multiple beams in an optical fiber via stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). Four off-axis beams are combined in a long multimode optical fiber using a novel all-optical mount. The combined beam has the high spatial coherence properties of the LP(01) mode owing to the beam cleanup properties of SBS.

Use of a continuous wave Raman fiber laser in graded-index multimode fiber for SRS beam combination.

We report using a Raman fiber laser (RFL) based on a multimode graded-index fiber as a novel method for beam combination of two continuous wave pump beams. Due to stimulated Raman scattering, the RFL generates a Stokes beam which can be up to 300% brighter than the pump beams. Up to 5.

Multi-port beam combination and cleanup in large multimode fiber using stimulated Raman scattering.

We demonstrated the successful combination and cleanup of four laser beams via stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) using a multi-port fiber combiner and a large multimode fiber. Multiple Stokes orders were observed in the output, but loss at longer wavelengths reduced the transmission of the higher Stokes orders and limited the SRS conversion efficiency. SRS beam cleanup was also investigated using a single laser beam.