kHz pulse generation with Brillouin erbium fiber laser

Narrow linewidth light lasers are critical for many applications including quantum computing, spectroscopy, and sensing. Stimulated Brillouin scattering is a promising approach to realize highly coherent light laser emission. Here we report demonstration of a pulsed Brillouin erbium fiber laser (BEFL) operating at kHz regime. The BEFL operates at 1550.1 nm, which is upshifted by 0.09 nm from the Brillouin pump wavelength as the erbium-doped fiber was pumped above the threshold of 24.8 mW. It has a peak power of -8.4 dBm with a side-mode suppression ratio of 32 dB at 980 nm pump power of 70.5 mW. At 24.8 mW pump, the BEFL produced a pulse train operating at 12.57 kHz due to the inherent instability in relaxation oscillation, which causes the nonlinear self-pulsing mechanism in the BEFL cavity. The pulse rate increased to 77.11 kHz. As the pump power is raised to 36.2 mW. However, the more than one pulses were generated as the pump power is further increased. This is the first demonstration of a stable kHz pulse generation in BEFL cavity. The laser system is simple, compact and in all-fiber configuration.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates a pulsed Brillouin erbium fiber laser (BEFL) operating at kHz regime, which provides narrow linewidth and high coherence. By controlling the pump power, stable kHz pulse emission can be achieved.