Noise and Pulse Dynamics in Backward Stimulated Brillouin Scattering

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical and numerical analysis of thermal noise effects in backward Stimulated Brillouin Scattering, providing a predictive model and exploring how pulse and waveguide parameters influence noise and signal quality.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive stochastic model for SBS noise prediction and analyzes the impact of pulse configuration and waveguide properties on noise behavior.

Findings

Noise can be significantly reduced with optimized waveguide length and pulse parameters.

The model accurately predicts noise measurements across different configurations.

Signal-to-noise ratio varies notably with optical loss and interaction time.

Abstract

We theoretically and numerically study the effects of thermal noise on pulses in backwards Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS). Using a combination of stochastic calculus and numerical methods, we derive a theoretical model that can be used to quantitatively predict noise measurements. We study how the optical pulse configuration, including the input powers of the pump and Stokes fields, pulse durations and interaction time, affects the noise in the output Stokes field. We investigate the effects on the noise of the optical loss and waveguide length, and we find that the signal-to-noise ratio can be significantly improved, or reduced, for specific combinations of waveguide properties and pulse parameters.