Tunable all-optical delays via Brillouin slow light in an optical fiber

Abstract

We have demonstrated that stimulated Brillouin scattering can be used to generate all-optical slow-light pulse delays of greater than a pulse length for pulses as short as 16 ns in a single-mode fiber. Since the induced delay is generated for wavelengths detuned from the pump field by the Brillouin frequency, tuning near an electronic resonance of the material is not required and thus delays can be induced at telecommunication wavelengths. This represents a significant improvement over previous demonstrations of slow light in solids and is an important step towards developing an all-optical tunable delay line for telecommunications. In addition, these results strongly suggest that analogous delays can be achieved using stimulated Raman scattering at telecommunication data rates.