Fiber-based phase-sensitive optical amplifiers and their applications
Journal article, 2020

Optical parametric amplifiers rely on second-order susceptibility (three-wave mixing) or third-order susceptibility (four-wave mixing) in a nonlinear process where the energy of incoming photons is not changed (elastic scattering). In the latter case, two pump photons are converted to a signal and to an idler photon. Under certain conditions, related to the phase evolution of the waves involved, this conversion can be very effi-cient, resulting in large amplification of an input signal. As the nonlinear process can be very fast, all-optical applications aside from pure amplification are also possible. If the amplifier is implemented in an optical input-phase-sensitive manner, it is possible to amplify a signal wave without excess noise, i.e., with a noise figure of 0 dB. In this paper, we will provide the fundamental concepts and theory of such amplifiers, with a focus on their implementation in highly nonlinear optical fibers relying on four-wave mixing. We will discuss the distinctions between phase-insensitive and phase-sensitive operation and include several experimental results to illustrate their capability. Different applications of parametric amplifiers are also discussed, including their use in optical communication links.

Author

Peter Andrekson

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics

Magnus Karlsson

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics

Advances in Optics and Photonics

19438206 (eISSN)

Vol. 12 2 367-428

Free-space optical transmission links with unprecedented receiver sensitivity (FREESPACE)

European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/813236), 2018-11-01 -- 2020-04-30.

Subject Categories

Other Physics Topics

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1364/AOP.382548

More information

Latest update

3/21/2023