Evolution of Surface Acoustic Waves in an Optical Microfiber

This paper reports stimulated Brillouin scattering characterization in a tapered optical fiber using full-vectorial finite element-based numerical methods. Numerical simulations of both optical and acoustic waves’ propagation through a tapered microfiber have been carried out. Acoustic modes over a range of wavenumber for different fiber core radii are obtained and nature of their both dominant and non-dominant displacement vector profiles are studied and discussed. Acoustic mode profiles show confinement of the acoustic wave predominantly at the core cladding interface. In addition, the acoustooptical overlap factors at different fiber radii are also presented.