Vector analysis of depleted stimulated Brillouin scattering amplification in standard single-mode fibers with nonzero birefringence

Numerical and experimental investigations of stimulated Brillouin scattering signal amplification in standard single-mode fibers under pump depletion show that while gains are reduced, the same orthogonal input states of polarization that provide maximum and minimum gain in the undepleted case practically continue to do so in the depleted regime. Using a scaled Brillouin gain coefficient, the power distribution of these max/min polarizations along the fiber can be deduced from a scalar formulation. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America