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NONLINEAR OPTICS

A narrow twist

Nature Photonics volume 16, pages 482–484 (2022)Cite this article

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One hundred years ago, in 1922, Léon Brillouin discovered the scattering of light by sound waves. Within an optical fibre, Brillouin scattering may be used to create narrow-linewidth filters and spectrometers. A twisted optical fibre is now used to reduce these linewidths by over an order of magnitude, down to the sub-MHz level.

Filtering the spectrum of light is a key functionality in optical technologies, such as spectrometers, narrow-band lasers, and wavelength combiners. In traditional optical filters, the spectral linewidth is limited by residual losses, which are hard to suppress below a certain level — especially when compact photonic structures are required. One approach to surpass such a limit is to explore the long lifetime of acoustic waves. This is a well-established technology for filtering and timing of radio-frequency electromagnetic waves, in which piezo-electricity is used to bridge the electrical and acoustic domains.

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Fig. 1: Exploiting Brillouin scattering and ultra-narrow spectral features.

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  1. University of Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil

    Thiago Alegre & Gustavo Wiederhecker

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  1. Thiago Alegre
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  2. Gustavo Wiederhecker
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Correspondence to Thiago Alegre or Gustavo Wiederhecker.

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Alegre, T., Wiederhecker, G. A narrow twist. Nat. Photon. 16, 482–484 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01029-4

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