Abstract

Passively Q-switched fiber lasers based on stimulated nonlinear scattering processes such Brillouin (SBS) and Raman (SRS) have been extensively studied past decades [1–4]. In particular, the exploitation of SBS backscattering as a passive Q-switching mechanism allows the generation of high-peak power short pulses [1–3]. However, the stochastic nature of SBS leads to unstable pulsed operation characterized by random emission of giant transient pulses which can cause irreversible damages on the fiber itself. This has severely limited the proliferation of this laser technology. Understanding in details the processes involved in the generation of such giant pulses could give new insights about the nonlinear dynamics of extreme events in cavity-based optical systems, paving the way to harnessing these “rogue” pulses. Heavy-tailed statistics, often associated with rogue wave behaviour [5], have for instance been reported in mode-locked fiber lasers [6] and Raman amplifiers [7]. However, even if extreme fluctuations in lasers undergoing SBS have been reported in the past [3], no connection with rogue wave behaviour have been made.

© 2015 IEEE