Acta Photonica Sinica, Volume. 54, Issue 4, 0406003(2025)

Analysis of Full-mode Acousto-optic Coupling in Stimulated Brillouin Scattering of Few-mode Fibers

Ziming HUA1, Lijuan ZHAO1,2,3、*, Zhiyuan XIE1,4, and Zhiniu XU1
Author Affiliations
  • 1School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,North China Electric Power University,Baoding 071003,China
  • 2Hebei Key Laboratory of Power Internet of Things Technology,North China Electric Power University,Baoding 071003,China
  • 3Baoding Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Optical Communication Technology,North China;Electric Power University,Baoding 071003,China
  • 4Technology Innovation Center for Transformers of Hebei Province,Baoding 071003,China
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    In Brillouin sensing systems, single-mode fibers are commonly used. However, the input optical power of single-mode fibers is limited by the stimulated Brillouin scattering effect, which constrains their sensing performance. Compared with single-mode fibers, few-mode fibers have larger core radius, allowing higher input optical power and enabling the transmission of multiple relatively independent modes simultaneously, which holds the potential for improved sensing performance. Brillouin scattering in few-mode fibers can be characterized by parameters such as Brillouin gain peak, Brillouin frequency shift, and linewidth. These parameters vary with modes and exhibit different response characteristics to various physical quantities. Brillouin scattering in few-mode fibers offers the potential for simultaneous measurement of multiple physical quantities. Therefore, studying the Brillouin scattering characteristics of different modes in few-mode fibers is crucial, as it helps to better understand how each mode contributes to the overall scattering response and enables the optimization of the fiber's performance for multi-parameter sensing applications. However, existing research still has certain limitations. Reports on the full-mode acousto-optic mode coupling in few-mode fibers, as well as the effects of core radius and doping concentration on their stimulated Brillouin scattering, are scarce. To investigate the impact of core radius and doping concentration on the full-mode acousto-optic mode coupling of stimulated Brillouin scattering in few-mode fibers, this paper introduces the optical and acoustic waveguide characteristic equations of few-mode fibers under satisfying the core and cladding boundary conditions. Different optical and acoustic mode distributions and normalized field distributions are analyzed using characteristic functions and finite element methods. The relationship between the number of acoustic modes and the normalized acoustic frequency values in few-mode fibers is explored. The full-mode Brillouin gain spectrum of four-mode fibers is analyzed, and the effects of core radius and germanium doping concentration on the Brillouin frequency shift, linewidth, and gain spectrum in few-mode fibers are studied. The variation patterns of Brillouin frequency shift and linewidth in full-mode acousto-optic coupling of ten-mode fibers are summarized. In this paper, the simulations were implemented using MATLAB and COMSOL Multiphysics software. The research results indicate that there is a quadratic relationship between the number of acoustic modes in few-mode fibers and the acoustic normalized frequency value. The full-mode acousto-optic coupling in few-mode fibers can be divided into effective and ineffective acousto-optic mode coupling. Effective acousto-optic coupling can be divided into two cases: one is the coupling between the Lln mode family (l=0) and any LPmn mode, and the other is the coupling between the Lln mode family (l=2m) and the LPmn mode (m>0). When the germanium doping concentration is between 1.5% and 4.0%, the linewidth of the full-mode acousto-optic mode coupling increases with the increase of germanium doping concentration, and when the concentration exceeds 2.0%, the linewidth shows a linear increasing trend. Brillouin frequency shift variation: when the LPmn mode families are coupled with the L0n mode family, the Brillouin frequency shift decreases with increasing optical mode order; when the LPmn mode families (m>0) are coupled with the Lln mode families (l=2m), the Brillouin frequency shift approaches the total Brillouin gain spectrum frequency shift. Line width variation: when the LPmn mode families (m=0) are coupled with the Lln mode families (l=0), the line widths of the LP02 and LP03 modes are much larger than those of the LP01 mode; when the LPmn mode families (m>0) are coupled with the Lln mode families (l=0) and the Lln mode families (l=2m) respectively, and the linewidth of the same optical mode family LPmn increases as the optical mode order increases when it is coupled with the acoustic mode. The research results of this paper are expected to provide certain reference value for stimulated Brillouin scattering in few-mode fibers.

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    Ziming HUA, Lijuan ZHAO, Zhiyuan XIE, Zhiniu XU. Analysis of Full-mode Acousto-optic Coupling in Stimulated Brillouin Scattering of Few-mode Fibers[J]. Acta Photonica Sinica, 2025, 54(4): 0406003

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    Paper Information

    Category: Fiber Optics and Optical Communications

    Received: Sep. 27, 2024

    Accepted: Dec. 27, 2024

    Published Online: May. 15, 2025

    The Author Email: Lijuan ZHAO (hdzlj@126.com)

    DOI:10.3788/gzxb20255404.0406003

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