Brillouin gain spectrum characterization in Ge-doped large-mode-area fibers*

Abstract

The dependence of Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) characteristics, including the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) and the BGS bandwidth, on germanium concentration in large-mode-area Ge-doped passive fibers is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The simulation results show that the BFS is inversely proportional to GeO2 concentration, and the BGS bandwidth initially increases with the augment of GeO2 concentration, and then decreases. The BGSs of four fibers with core diameters of 10μm and 20μm for different GeO2 concentrations are compared experimentally. Experimental results demonstrate that with the same core diameter, the variations of BFS and BGS bandwidths with GeO2 concentration accord with the simulation results. Additionally, the BGS characteristics of three large-mode-area passive fibers with diameters of 10μm, 25μm, and 30μm are measured, which confirm that the increasing of the fiber diameters will cause the BGS bandwidth to broaden. We believe that these results can provide valuable references for modulating the high-power narrow-linewidth fiber lasers and Brillouin fiber amplifiers.