Tailoring the response of stimulated Brillouin scattering in fibers

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) limits the amount of light per unit bandwidth that can be transmitted down or generated in an optical fiber. As such, it typically has the lowest threshold of all the nonlinear processes in narrow line-width systems and is a major limitation in the scaling fiber lasers to higher powers. This paper describes how thoughtful consideration of the materials from which the fibers are made can have marked effects on SBS mitigation; more so than achievable through complex microstructuring of the optical fiber.