A narrow-linewidth high-power fused silica Brillouin laser

Abstract

Free-space Brillouin lasers (BLs) generate high-power narrow-linewidth laser outputs at specific wavelengths. However, despite these impressive results, further compressing the Stokes linewidth while maintaining a high-power output remains a challenge. This study was conducted to investigate the design of BLs, starting from the phase-matching conditions and stability of a Brillouin cavity, for media with different phonon frequencies. A high-power and narrow-linewidth output can be realized using large-size, wide-gain-bandwidth Brillouin media. We experimentally demonstrated a BL using fused silica and diamond with the same cavity parameters. Stokes powers of 21.6 and 18.9 W were obtained with fused silica and diamond, respectively, at an available pump power of 58 W. Using fused silica, a Stokes linewidth of 1.2 kHz was obtained, which is two times narrower than that obtained using the diamond BL. Such BL design routes for various Brillouin media provide a path for achieving high-power, ultra-narrow-linewidth laser radiation at specific wavelengths.