Raman gain enhancement through four-wave mixing in a microstructured photonic crystal fiber

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is a well known nonlinear process. It has been thoroughly studied both theoretically and experimentally, and has recently been of renewed interest in silica optical fibers as a result of its application to novel high power broadband amplifier systems. PCFs typically exhibit an effective Raman gain 10-100 times higher than conventional fibers. The experiment has been made possible thanks to the combination of the remarkable nonlinear and dispersion properties of PCFs, and could lead to a significant improvement of PCF-based Raman amplifiers.