Impact of nonlinear spectral broadening in ultra-long Raman fibre lasers

We present an experimental study of the impact of FWM-induced nonlinear spectral broadening on the effective reflectivity of ultra-long Raman fiber laser cavities of diverse lengths and fiber bases. We observe an exponential decay of the effective reflectivity with growing power. In standard single-mode fiber, effective reflectivity drops of up to 50% for shorter cavity lengths are observed, while the longest cavity length of 82.4km displays power leakage amounting to an effective reduction of reflectivity of approximately 30%. Using different types of fiber we examine the effect of chromatic dispersion on the Stokes wave broadening.