Laser-induced dispersion with stimulated Raman scattering in gas-filled optical fiber

Abstract

Laser-induced dispersion provides an all-optical means for dynamically controlling light propagation. Previous works on dispersion control with a laser beam make use of Kerr non-linearity, electromagnetic-induced transparency, and stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers. Here we report, for the first time to our knowledge, optically controllable dispersion with stimulated Raman scattering in a gas-filled hollow-core optical fiber and show that flexible dispersion tuning can be achieved by varying optical pump power and wavelength as well as gas concentration and pressure in the hollow core. As an example of application, we demonstrated the use of such laser-induced dispersion for high-sensitivity hydrogen detection and achieved a normalized detection limit of 17.4 ppm/(m·W) with dynamic range over four orders of magnitude.