Suppression of Stimulated Brillouin scattering in high power, low phase noise RF-photonic links

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) degrades the performance of ultra-low phase noise RF-photonic links by limiting the optical power that can be transmitted through the optical fiber. While SBS can be suppressed with a variety of methods, existing techniques conflict with the demands of RF-photonic links that require the lowest phase noise. In this work, we present a new technique that is compatible with these systems. We demonstrate that by concatenating spools of Corning SMF-28 fiber with different Brillouin frequency shifts, it is possible to decrease the total power reflected in the SBS process by at least 7 dB. This corresponds to an increase in the optical power that can be transmitted through the fiber.