Unconventional processing functions through dynamic Brillouin gratings in optical fibers

Among all nonlinear optical phenomena, stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is often overlooked, essentially because of its small natural bandwidth. Nonetheless, the relative low power needed to induce this effect makes SBS very attractive for photonics. Recently the realization of dynamic Brillouin gratings (DBGs) in optical fibers demonstrated to be an extremely versatile technique to achieve, with a single experimental setup, several all-optical signal processing functions. Highly flexible delay lines, a basic element in processing, have been the first important achievement. Then, unconventional functions like all-optical time differentiation, time integration and true time reversal have been theoretically predicted, and then numerically and experimentally demonstrated. The technique can be exploited to process both photonic and ultra-wide band microwave signals, so enabling many applications in photonics and in radio sci- ence, sensing being also a field of application. In all those applications the SBS bandwidth is not a limitation. In this talk the state of the art in DBG signal processing will be first reviewed. Then, novel possibilities will be explored, such as the realization of parallel processing in few mode fibers. The promising chances for on-chip integration of DBG functionalities will be also highlighted.