Moderate-gain Brillouin amplification: An analytical solution below pump threshold

Highly accurate closed-form analytical formula, based on the undepleted pump approximation (UPA), is derived for pump, Stokes and the gain of a Brillouin fiber amplifier (BFA) operating in the moderately depleted pump regime. The material loss of the medium, which is a strong effect in optical fibers, is taken into account. To define validity ranges of the solution, the threshold power of BFA is accurately determined. The obtained results are numerically and experimentally validated. The presented analysis can be used to accurately predict the performance of moderate-gain BFAs.