Optical heterodyne carried generation using stimulated Brillouin scattering in birefringent optical fibre

An optical technique for producing a heterodyne carrier frequency suitable for electronic signal processing schemes in sensing applications is described. The technique exploits stimulated Brillouin scattering generated in birefringent optical fibre. A single fibre system is reported which produces a 10.6 MHz output carrier signal, modulated by optical chaos induced instabilities. The implications of the results for future signal processing and sensing schemes based on stimulated Brillouin scattering are then discussed.