Transient stimulated Brillouin scattering in long single-mode fibres

Recent experiments show that stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in low-loss fibres could place a severe limitation on optical power levels for coherent optical transmission. The letter analyses the transient stimulated scattering produced when the laser is modulated, and it is concluded that the limitations due to SBS could be circumvented by using particular modulation techniques.