title: Investigations of single-frequency Raman fiber amplifiers operating at 1178 nm.
abstract: We report on core-pumped single-stage and two-stage polarization-maintaining single-frequency Raman fiber amplifiers (RFAs). For a counter-pumped single-stage RFA, commercial-off-the shelf (COTS) single-mode fiber was utilized to generate 10 W of output power at 1178 nm through the application of a two-step thermal gradient in order to suppress SBS. The relatively high output can be explained by the Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) of the COTS fiber. A pump-probe characterization of the BGS of the fiber provided a Brillouin gain coefficient of 1.2 × 10(-11) m/W with a FWHM of 78 MHz for the gain bandwidth. A fiber cutback study was also conducted to investigate the signal output at SBS threshold as a function of pump power for optimal length. This study revealed a linear dependence, which is in agreement with the theoretical prediction. Furthermore, we present numerical simulations indicating that substantial power scaling can be achieved by seeding at a higher power. Consequently, we constructed a two-stage RFA in order to achieve seed powers at the 1 W level. By utilizing an acoustically tailored fiber possessing a lower Brillouin gain coefficient than the COTS fiber and by seeding at higher powers, 22 W of single-frequency 1178 nm output was obtained from a counter-pumped two-stage RFA. Finally, we show that the single-frequency spectral bandwidth could not be maintained when a similar co-pumped two-stage RFA was utilized.
authors.affiliation: Directed Energy Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico 87117, USA.
authors.forename: Iyad
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dajani
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vergien
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Robin
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ward
mesh_terms: D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D053844:Lasers, Solid-State; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000295:instrumentation*