Cascaded Raman generation in optical fibers: influence of chromatic dispersion and Rayleigh backscattering

We study experimentally the influence of chromatic dispersion and Rayleigh backscattering on cascaded Raman generation in silica optical fibers. Effects ranging from enhanced spectral broadening of the Stokes orders to generation of higher Stokes order at unexpected wavelengths are observed. Additionally, we show that four-wave-mixing processes can quench the noisy Rayleigh lasing lines generated in power Raman amplifiers. Our observations are confirmed by numerical simulations. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.