Enhanced on-chip stimulated Brillouin scattering: Principles, strategies, and emerging applications

Abstract

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) has emerged as a fundamental nonlinear process in integrated photonics, enabling advanced coherent signal processing, narrow-linewidth lasers, and ultra-high-resolution sensing. However, harnessing SBS at the chip scale presents inherent challenges, primarily originating from weak optomechanical interactions and short phonon lifetimes. This review provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of the latest advances in enhancing on-chip SBS. For the first time, we categorize the enhancement approaches into three interrelated pathways: waveguide geometry engineering (exploiting radiation pressure and phonon confinement), material-core optimization (ranging from chalcogenides to piezoelectric materials), and hybrid dynamic control schemes (such as phonon injection and electro-optic tuning). We further explore the frontier applications of engineered on-chip SBS in microwave photonics, quantum information processing, and optomechanical sensing. Finally, we offer perspectives on future directions and remaining challenges toward realizing scalable and multifunctional Brillouin photonic integrated circuits. This work serves as a roadmap for unlocking the full potential of Brillouin interactions in next-generation integrated systems.

Keywords

stimulated Brillouin scattering / integrated photonics / enhancement mechanisms

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Higher Education Press 2026

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