Brillouin Scattering in a Lithium Fluoride Crystalline Resonator for Microwave Generation

International audienceWe report Brillouin lasing in a monofluoride crystalline resonator for the very first time. While Raman scattering results from the interaction between a laser beam and an optical phonon providing a frequency shift in the THz range, Brillouin scattering results from the interaction between a strong laser beam and an acoustic phonon leading to a frequency shift of few GHz, which makes it more suitable for microwave generation. We present a time do-main model which tracks the dynamics of the Stokes and pump waves and finally, with the help of a stability analysis, we determine analytically the threshold power. Such a laser has great potential for ultra-pure microwave and multi-wavelength generation