A photonic integrated continuous-travelling-wave parametric amplifier

Johann Riemensberger (), Nikolai Kuznetsov, Junqiu Liu, Jijun He, Rui Ning Wang and Tobias J. Kippenberg ()
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Johann Riemensberger: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Nikolai Kuznetsov: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Junqiu Liu: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Jijun He: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Rui Ning Wang: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Tobias J. Kippenberg: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)

Nature, 2022, vol. 612, issue 7938, 56-61

Abstract: Abstract The ability to amplify optical signals is of pivotal importance across science and technology typically using rare-earth-doped fibres or gain media based on III–V semiconductors. A different physical process to amplify optical signals is to use the Kerr nonlinearity of optical fibres through parametric interactions1,2. Pioneering work demonstrated continuous-wave net-gain travelling-wave parametric amplification in fibres3, enabling, for example, phase-sensitive (that is, noiseless) amplification4, link span increase5, signal regeneration and nonlinear phase noise mitigation6. Despite great progress7–15, all photonic integrated circuit-based demonstrations of net parametric gain have necessitated pulsed lasers, limiting their practical use. Until now, only bulk micromachined periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide chips have achieved continuous-wave gain16,17, yet their integration with silicon-wafer-based photonic circuits has not been shown. Here we demonstrate a photonic-integrated-circuit-based travelling-wave optical parametric amplifier with net signal gain in the continuous-wave regime. Using ultralow-loss, dispersion-engineered, metre-long, Si3N4 photonic integrated circuits18 on a silicon chip of dimensions 5 × 5 mm2, we achieve a continuous parametric gain of 12 dB that exceeds both the on-chip optical propagation loss and fibre–chip–fibre coupling losses in the telecommunication C band. Our work demonstrates the potential of photonic-integrated-circuit-based parametric amplifiers that have lithographically controlled gain spectrum, compact footprint, resilience to optical feedback and quantum-limited performance, and can operate in the wavelength ranges from visible to mid-infrared and outside conventional rare-earth amplification bands.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05329-1

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