Abstract
Among all the nonlinear effects stimulated Brillouin scattering offers the highest gain in solid materials and has demonstrated advanced photonics functionalities in waveguides. The large compressibility of gases suggests that stimulated Brillouin scattering may gain in efficiency with respect to condensed materials. Here, by using a gas-filled hollow-core fibre at high pressure, we achieve a strong Brillouin amplification per unit length, exceeding by six times the gain observed in fibres with a solid silica core. This large amplification benefits from a higher molecular density and a lower acoustic attenuation at higher pressure, combined with a tight light confinement. Using this approach, we demonstrate the capability to perform large optical amplifications in hollow-core waveguides. The implementations of a low-threshold gas Brillouin fibre laser and a high-performance distributed temperature sensor, intrinsically free of strain cross-sensitivity, illustrate the potential for hollow-core fibres, paving the way to their integration into lasing, sensing and signal processing.