Optical rogue wave in random distributed feedback fiber laser

TL;DR

This paper reports the first experimental observation of optical rogue waves in a random distributed feedback fiber laser, revealing complex localized high-intensity events driven by stimulated Brillouin scattering in a mirrorless, disordered cavity.

Contribution

It demonstrates optical rogue wave behavior in a random fiber laser with distributed feedback, expanding understanding of extreme events in disordered laser systems.

Findings

Observation of high-intensity rogue waves in RFL

Detection of threshold-like beating peaks in RF spectroscopy

Linking rogue waves to stimulated Brillouin scattering processes

Abstract

The famous demonstration of optical rogue wave (RW)-rarely and unexpectedly event with extremely high intensity-had opened a flourishing time for temporal statistic investigation as a powerful tool to reveal the fundamental physics in different laser scenarios. However, up to now, optical RW behavior with temporally localized structure has yet not been presented in random fiber laser (RFL) characterized with mirrorless open cavity, whose feedback arises from distinctive distributed multiple scattering. Here, thanks to the participation of sustained and crucial stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) process, experimental explorations of optical RW are done in the highly-skewed transient intensity of an incoherently-pumped standard-telecom-fiber-constructed RFL. Furthermore, threshold-like beating peak behavior can also been resolved in the radiofrequency spectroscopy. Bringing the concept of optical RW to RFL domain without fixed cavity may greatly extend our comprehension of the rich and complex kinetics such as photon propagation and localization in disordered amplifying media with multiple scattering.