Engineering the acoustic-wave character and frequency of simulated Brillouin scattering (Invited Paper)

Stimulated Brillouin scattering couples optical and acoustic waves with applications for signal processing, narrow-linewidth lasers, and environmental sensors. While traditional interactions were fixed in acoustic-wave character and frequency, more recent techniques with engineered optical waves enable new flexibility. In this talk I will discuss recent developments of tunable stimulated Brillouin interactions with 1) low-frequency guided acoustic waves and 2) surface-acoustic waves. Interactions with fundamental guided acoustic waves enable record coupling strengths and linewidths ideal for sensors and signal processing, and interactions with surface-acoustic waves enable versatile contact-free optical control and spectroscopy of state-of-the-art saw cavities for classical and quantum applications.