Spurious signals identification in Brillouin light scattering spectrum

Abstract

Brillouin light scattering (BLS) is the inelastic scattering of light from elementary excitations with periodic density modulation. The characteristics of non-contact, high sensitivity, and high resolution in energy, wavevector, time, space, and phase make the BLS spectrometer widely used in investigating many intriguing physical phenomena, including the acoustic phonon confinement effects, Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), supercurrent, and soliton formation. Generally, the quick and correct assignment of the signals in the BLS spectra is a prerequisite for further investigations. Herein, we experimentally identify the high-order spurious signals in the BLS spectra, which make the interpretation of the spectra difficult. The additional signals are demonstrated to originate from the laser and the temperature-controlled laser filter used for laser filtering. Our results would contribute to the rapid assignment of the signals from the sample after excluding the spurious signals reported here. Moreover, the series of high-order modes spaced by the free spectral range can serve as a weak broadband light source, which has great potential for investigating the optical responses of materials.