Light propagation in small-core photonic crystal fibers enables tight optical confinement over long propagation lengths to enhance light-matter interactions. Not only can photonic crystal fibers compress light spatially, they also provide a tunable means to control light-hypersound interactions. By exploring Brillouin light scattering in a small-core and high air-filling fraction microstructured fiber, we report the observation of Brillouin scattering from surface acoustic waves at lower frequencies than standard Brillouin scattering from bulk acoustic waves. This effect could find potential applications for optical sensing technologies that exploit surface acoustic waves.

Date Published: 27 April 2016
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 9894, Nonlinear Optics and its Applications IV, 98941J (27 April 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2227653

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9894:
Nonlinear Optics and its Applications IV
Benjamin J. Eggleton; Neil G. R. Broderick; Alexander L. Gaeta, Editor(s)