Low-Noise Integrated Phase-Sensitive Waveguide Parametric Amplifiers
Journal article, 2022

Low noise optical amplifiers play a vital role in optical communications and signal processing. Recently, there has been a pursuit for compact, waveguide-based, parametric amplifiers which employ the four-wave mixing process relying on the 3rd order nonlinearity, <sup>(3)</sup>, of the material. Here, we present an analytic model for the gain and noise of phase-sensitive parametric amplifiers based on nonlinear optical waveguides, which includes the impact of the linear loss of the waveguide. We provide insights into the importance of this loss for the gain, but more importantly also for the amplifier noise figure. In particular, we study waveguides based on Si<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> and find that a gain of 28 dB with a 0.8 dB noise figure is feasible in a 3 m long waveguide having a loss of 1.5 dB/m. We finally investigate the impact of the Si3N4 waveguide cross section on the dispersion and the nonlinear coefficient for the improvement of PSA performance.

Optical losses

Optical amplifiers

Integrated optics

Four-wave mixing

Optical signal processing

Nonlinear optical devices

Optical amplifiers

Gain

Optical waveguides

Optical pumping

Stimulated emission

Author

Ping Zhao

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics

Magnus Karlsson

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics

Peter Andrekson

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics

Journal of Lightwave Technology

0733-8724 (ISSN) 1558-2213 (eISSN)

Vol. 40 1 128-135

Subject Categories

Applied Mechanics

Other Physics Topics

Signal Processing

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2021.3119423

More information

Latest update

5/31/2022