Investigation on pulse compression based on stimulated Brillouin scattering and optical breakdown

Pulse compression based on the combination of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and optical breakdown is investigated in this paper. The first pulse compression based on SBS features a sharp rising edge while the second based on optical breakdown is characterized by a sharp falling edge, therefore a symmetrical narrow pulse can be produced with this approach. In the experiment, FC-72 is used as the Brillouin medium in the first pulse compression, while HT-270 is chosen as the solvent for optical breakdown in the second pulse compression. A 12-ns pump pulse is first compressed to 6 ns by SBS and then further to about 2 ns with comparatively symmetrical edges after optical breakdown.