Noise and Dynamics of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering Microresonator Laser Oscillators

Published

October 16, 2014

Author(s)

William Loh, Scott B. Papp, Scott A. Diddams

Abstract

We use a combination of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation to investigate the fundamental operation of a laser oscillating from gain supplied by the stimulated Brillouin scattering process. Our analysis is performed for a laser generated within a microresonator geometry, in which the detuning of the pump from the cavity resonance modifies the behavior of the laser. The interaction of the forward, backward, and density waves within the microresonator result in a set of coupled-mode equations describing their evolution over time. The steady state of the system is such that the forward-propagating field becomes clamped at threshold to a value dependent on the pump detuning, while the remainder of the pump power is consumed in the amplification of the generated backwards wave. We also investigate the fundamental noise performance of the SBS laser and identify the essential parameters that enable low-noise SBS operation. Our results indicate that intrinsic laser linewidths below ~10 Hz are achievable when oscillating via SBS gain. The corresponding lasing thresholds are below 1 mW due to the the low intracavity losses afforded by high-Q microresonators. The transfer of pump noise into the generated oscillation signal can increase the SBS laser noise beyond these limits, and thus we analyze the effects of noise degradation induced by the pump. Our results are both supported and extended through numerical simulations of the laser's transient behavior.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of Photonics Conference (IPC), 2014 IEEE

Conference Dates

October 12-16, 2014

Conference Location

San Diego, CA

Conference Title

Photonics Conference (IPC), 2014 IEEE

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

Microresonators, Nonlinear Optics

Citation

Loh, W. , Papp, S. and Diddams, S. (2014), Noise and Dynamics of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering Microresonator Laser Oscillators, Proceedings of Photonics Conference (IPC), 2014 IEEE , San Diego, CA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=917152 (Accessed April 25, 2024)