Broad-band optical parametric gain on a silicon photonic chip

Foster, Mark A.; Turner, Amy C.; Sharping, Jay E.; Schmidt, Bradley S.; Lipson, Michal; Gaeta, Alexander L.

doi:10.1038/nature04932

Cited by 862 publications

(644 citation statements)

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“…All-optical signal generation and processing [1,2] have been highly successful at enabling a vast array of capabilities, such as switching and de-multiplexing of signals at unprecedented speeds [3,4], parametric gain [5] on a chip, Raman lasing [6], wavelength conversion [7], optical logic [8], all-optical regeneration [9,10], radio-frequency (RF) spectrometry at THz speeds [11,12], as well as entirely new functions such as ultra-short pulse measurement [13,14] and generation [15] on a chip, optical temporal cloaking [16], and many others. Phase sensitive functions [14,17], in particular, will likely be critical for telecommunications systems that are already using phase encoding schemes [18,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New CMOS-compatible platforms based on silicon nitride and Hydex for nonlinear optics

et al. 2013

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New CMOS-compatible platforms based on silicon nitride and Hydex for nonlinear optics

et al. 2013

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“…However, a low-dissipation medium that is sufficiently nonlinear over a realizable length must be found. At visible and infrared wavelengths, these requirements are met in optical fibers [18] and silicon waveguides [19] through the nonlinear process of four-wave mixing (FWM) that results from the intensity dependence of the refractive index, i.e. the Kerr effect.…”

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confidence: 99%

A wideband, low-noise superconducting amplifier with high dynamic range

et al. 2012

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Amplifiers are ubiquitous in electronics and play a fundamental role in a wide range of scientific measurements. From a user's perspective, an ideal amplifier has very low noise, operates over a broad frequency range, and has a high dynamic range -it is capable of handling strong signals with little distortion.Unfortunately, it is difficult to obtain all of these characteristics simultaneously.For example, modern transistor amplifiers offer multi-octave bandwidths and excellent dynamic range. However, their noise remains far above the fundamental limit set by the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics.[1] Parametric amplifiers, which predate transistor amplifiers and are widely used in optics, exploit a nonlinear response to transfer power from a strong pump tone to a weak signal.If the nonlinearity is purely reactive, i.e. nondissipative, in theory the amplifier noise can reach the quantum-mechanical limit.[2] Indeed, microwave frequency superconducting Josephson parametric amplifiers [3, 4] do approach the quantum limit, but generally are narrow band and have very limited dynamic range. In this paper, we describe a superconducting parametric amplifier that overcomes these limitations. The amplifier is very simple, consisting only of a patterned metal film on a dielectric substrate, and relies on the nonlinear kinetic inductance of a superconducting transmission line. We measure gain extending over 2 GHz on either side of an 11.56 GHz pump tone, and we place an upper limit 1 arXiv:1201.2392v1 [cond-mat.supr-con] 11 Jan 2012 on the added noise of the amplifier of 3.4 photons at 9.4 GHz. Furthermore, the dynamic range is very large, comparable to microwave transistor amplifiers, and the concept can be applied throughout the microwave, millimeter-wave and submillimeter-wave bands.Over the past decade, the combination of high-performance superconducting microresonators and low-noise, microwave frequency cryogenic transistor amplifier readouts has proven to be particularly powerful for a wide range of applications including photon detection and quantum information experiments. [5][6][7] These developments have generated strong renewed interest in superconducting amplifiers that achieve even lower readout noise. [8][9][10][11][12].Most of these devices are parametric amplifiers that make use of the nonlinear inductance of the Josephson junction, which is almost ideally reactive with little dissipation below the critical current I c . As a result, Josephson paramps can be exquisitely sensitive, approaching the standard quantum limit of half a photon ω/2 of added noise power per unit bandwidth in the standard case when both quadratures of a signal at frequency ω are amplified equally.Here is Planck's constant divided by 2π. Even less noise is possible in situations when only one quadrature is amplified. [1]. In comparison, the added noise of cryogenic transistor amplifiers is typically 10-20 times the quantum limit.[13] However, the dynamic range of Josephson paramps is regulated by the Josephson energy E J = I c ...

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“…As such the cavity geometry is not conceptually central to the work and the reported phenomena should become equally observable in other types of high-Q microresonators, such as silicon, SOI or crystalline based WGM-resonators. Indeed the recent observation of net parametric gain [29] on a silicon chip is a promising step in this direction.…”

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Optical frequency comb generation from a monolithic microresonator

Del’Haye

Schließer

Arcizet

et al. 2007

Nature

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Optical frequency combs [1,2,3] provide equidistant frequency markers in the infrared, visible and ultra-violet [4,5] and can link an unknown optical frequency to a radio or microwave frequency reference [6,7]. Since their inception frequency combs have triggered major advances in optical frequency metrology and precision measurements [6,7] and in applications such as broadband laser-based gas sensing [8] and molecular fingerprinting [9]. Early work generated frequency combs by intra-cavity phase modulation [10,11], while to date frequency combs are generated utilizing the comb-like mode structure of mode-locked lasers, whose repetition rate and carrier envelope phase can be stabilized [12]. Here, we report an entirely novel approach in which equally spaced frequency markers are generated from a continuous wave (CW) pump laser of a known frequency interacting with the modes of a monolithic high-Q microresonator [13] via the Kerr nonlinearity [14,15]. The intrinsically broadband nature of parametric gain enables the generation of discrete comb modes over a 500 nm wide span (≈ 70 THz) around 1550 nm without relying on any external spectral broadening. Optical-heterodyne-based measurements reveal that cascaded parametric interactions give rise to an optical frequency comb, overcoming passive cavity dispersion. The uniformity of the mode spacing has been verified to within a relative experimental precision of 7.3×10 −18 . In contrast to femtosecond mode-locked lasers[16] the present work represents an enabling step towards a monolithic optical frequency comb generator allowing significant reduction in size, cost and power consumption. Moreover, the present approach can operate at previously unattainable repetition rates [17] exceeding 100 GHz which are useful in applications where the access to individual comb modes is required, such as optical waveform synthesis [18], high capacity telecommunications or astrophysical spectrometer calibration [19].Optical microcavities [20] are owing to their long temporal and small spatial light confinement ideally suited for nonlinear frequency conversion, which has led to a dramatic improvement in the threshold of nonlinear optical light conversion [21]. In contrast to stimulated gain, parametric frequency conversion [22] does not involve coupling to a dissipative reservoir, is broadband as it does not rely on atomic or molecular resonances and constitutes a phase sensitive amplification process, making it uniquely suited for tunable frequency conversion. In the case of a material with inversion symmetry -such as silica -the non linear optical effects are dominated by the third order non linearity. The process is based on four-wave mixing among two pump photons (frequency ν P ) with a signal (ν S ) and idler photon (ν I ) and results in the emergence of (phase coherent) signal and idler sidebands from the vacuum fluctuations at the expense of the pump field (cf. Fig.1). The observation of parametric interactions requires two conditions to be satisfied. First momentum conservation...

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Broad-band optical parametric gain on a silicon photonic chip

Cited by 862 publications

References 30 publications

New CMOS-compatible platforms based on silicon nitride and Hydex for nonlinear optics

New CMOS-compatible platforms based on silicon nitride and Hydex for nonlinear optics

A wideband, low-noise superconducting amplifier with high dynamic range

Optical frequency comb generation from a monolithic microresonator

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