The phosphosilicate fiber-based Raman fiber laser (RFL) has great potential in achieving low-quantum defect (QD) high-power laser output. However, the laser's performance could be seriously degraded by the Raman-assisted four-wave mixing (FWM) effect and spontaneous Raman generation at 14.7 THz. To find possible ways to suppress the Raman-assisted FWM effect and spontaneous Raman generation, here, we propose a revised power-balanced model to simulate the nonlinear process in the low-QD RFL. The power evolution characteristics in this low-QD RFL with different pump directions are calculated. The simulation results show that, compared to the forward-pumped low-QD RFL, the threshold powers of spontaneous Raman generation in the backward-pumped RFL are increased by 40% and the Raman-assisted FWM effect is well suppressed. Based on the simulation work, we change the pump direction of a forward-pumped low-QD RFL into backward pumping. As a result, the maximum signal power is increased by 20% and the corresponding spectral purity is increased to 99.8%. This work offers a way for nonlinear effects controlling in low-QD RFL, which is essential in its further performance scaling.
Keywords: Raman fiber laser; phosphosilicate fiber; quantum defect.