Brillouin scattering in photonic fibers

Author(s)

Paulo Clóvis Dainese Júnior

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin
• Defense date: 2006-09-15

Examining board members

Hugo Luis Fragnito; Hugo Enrique Hernández Figueroa; Sérgio Carlos Zilio; Antonio Rubens Britto de Castro; Flávio Caldas da Cruz

• Advisor: Hugo Luis Fragnito

Abstract

This thesis presents experimental and theorethical studies on Brillouin scattering in Photonic Crystal Fibers. With a pure silica core surrounded by a microstructed cladding (silica and air), these fibers allow the confinement of both acoustic and optical waves in sub-wavelength regions. The result is a radically different acousto-optic interaction from what has been observed in bulk media or conventional fibers. We investigate experimentally both forward and backward Brillouin scattering. We observed that for core diameters of around 70% of the vacuum wavelength of the launched laser light, the spontaneous Brillouin signal develops an unusual multi-peaked spectrum, these peaks we attribute to several families of guided acoustic modes. At the same time the threshold power for stimulated Brillouin scattering increases five-fold when the core diameter is reduced from from 8 .m to 1.22 .m , as a consequence of the complex nature of the acoustic modes, each with different proportions of longitudinal and shear strain, strongly localised to the core. In the case of forward scattering, we performed measurements of the spontaneous scattering and also of impulsive excitation of acoustic waves using high intensity optical pulses, through the effect of electrostriction. These experiments allowed us to observe the transverse confinment of acoustic waves in the core of the photonic crystal fiber. An analitic model for the acousto-optic interaction was developed by approximating the core of the photonic fiber by a circular strand of glass in vaccum, initially neglecting the presence of the micro-structured cladding. This simple model allowed us to understand the physics involved in the scattering process and also to qualitatevely explain our experimental observations. Numerical models were then implemented to calculate the acoustic and optical modes of the actual photonic fiber structure, and we were able to explain more precisely our observations. Finnally, we performed numerical calculation of the band structure of the micro-structured region, demonstrating the presence of prohibited gaps for the acoustic wave (phononics band gaps) (AU)