Stokes signal saturation in tunable BEFL system

The Stokes shifted signal with 7 nm tunability generated by a hybrid Brillouin/erbium fibre laser (BEFL) system was investigated. The results show that there is a saturation point after which further increment of Brillouin pump power will no longer increase the Stokes signal power. This saturation point determines the optimum Brillouin pump power needed for a specific BEFL configuration. A brief discussion on the methodology of determining the saturation point and selecting the best Brillouin pump power for a particular BEFL system is given. The results show that this is a promising technique for suppressing the stimulated Brillouin scattering effect, especially in areas that use high signal power