Optical frequency combs generated by four-wave mixing in a dual wavelength Brillouin laser cavity

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate the generation of optical frequency combs via four-wave mixing in a dual wavelength Brillouin laser cavity. When pumped by two continuous-wave lasers with a varied frequency separation, dual wavelength Brillouin lasers with reduced linewidth and improved optical signal to noise ratios are generated in a direction opposite to the pump laser. Simultaneously, cavity-enhanced cascaded four-wave mixing between dual wavelength Brillouin lasers occurs in the laser cavity, causing the generation of broadband optical frequency combs with step tunable mode spacing from 40 to 1300 GHz. Compared to the cavity-less case, the number of the comb lines generated in the dual wavelength Brillouin laser cavity is increased by ∼38 times.