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Optics Express

Quantum noise properties of parametric amplifiers driven by two pump waves

Colin J. McKinstrie, Stojan Radic, Michael G. Raymer

Published Jan 1, 2004• 112 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In a parametric amplifier (PA) driven by two pump waves the signal sideband is coupled to three idler sidebands, all of which are frequency-converted (FC) images of the signal, and two of which are phaseconjugated (PC) images of the signal. If such a device is to be useful, the signal must be amplified, and the PC and FC idlers must be produced, with minimal noise. In this paper the quantum noise properties of two-sideband (TS) parametric devices are reviewed and the properties of many-sideband devices are determined. These results are applied to the study of two-pump PAs, which are based on the aforementioned four-sideband (FS) interaction. As a general guideline, the more sidebands that interact, the higher are the noise levels. However, if the pump frequencies are tuned to maximize the frequency bandwidth of the FS interaction, the signal and idler noise-figures are only slightly higher than the noise figures associated with the limiting TS interactions.

DOI
10.1364/opex.12.005037

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In a parametric amplifier (PA) driven by two pump waves the signal sideband is coupled to three idler sidebands, all of which are frequency-converted (FC) images of the signal, and two of which are phaseconjugated (PC) images of the signal. If such a device is to be useful, the signal must be amplified, and the PC and FC idlers must be produced, with minimal noise. In this paper the quantum noise properties of two-sideband (TS) parametric devices are reviewed and the properties of many-sideband devices are determined. These results are applied to the study of two-pump PAs, which are based on the aforementioned four-sideband (FS) interaction. As a general guideline, the more sidebands that interact, the higher are the noise levels. However, if the pump frequencies are tuned to maximize the frequency bandwidth of the FS interaction, the signal and idler noise-figures are only slightly higher than the noise figures associated with the limiting TS interactions.
We derive the fundamental noise properties of a parametric amplifier (paramp) which is driven by a monochromatic pump but which has many lossy signal and idler modes. We use a quantum-mechanical approach similar to that employed by Louisell and co-workers in their treatment of paramps and lasers with lossless modes. Our results are not directly deducible from the lossless mode analysis, but they do give the same limiting noise temperature as that analysis. This minimum noise temperature is the same as that of an ideal laser. In fact, we find that one can always design a laser whose field correlation functions would be the same as those of any given paramp. Many results for laser noise in various configurations can be carried over directly and applied to parametric amplifiers by using correspondence substitutions which we set down. For example, in analogy to Pound's description of the maser (in terms of a Nyquist theorem extended to negative temperatures), the calculation of paramp noise is found to be equivalent to applying Nyquist's theorem to both the active and passive elements in the (classically computed) equivalent circuit of a signal mode of interest. From this one obtains the spectra of effective noise generators which, when amplified in the circuit, duplicate the "quantum" as well as thermal noise that is present in the output. The Nyquist theorem is extended to apply to each active element by simply taking the element temperatures to be minus the real temperature of the corresponding idler mode (whose parametric coupling into the signal circuit gives rise to that element) multiplied by the ratio of the pump minus the idler to the idler frequencies.
A simple theory for predicting the effects of pump noise on the performance of parametric amplifiers has been developed and verified. It is shown that AM noise on the pump injects both FM and AM noise on the signal magnified by approximately the amplifier gain. It is also shown that FM noise on the pump can yield both FM and AM noise on the amplified signal : in this case the coupling coefficient for simple amplifiers is shown to be a function of the idler bandwidth. Analytic expressions for the maximum coupling factors are quoted for the case of a simple amplifier. Experiments on two different amplifiers are described which both support the theoretical predictions.
The parametric amplifier is usually studied under the assumption that the pump mode is in a large-amplitude coherent state. We consider what happens when this is no longer the case. We first derive some exact relations between the number fluctuations of the pump and signal, the pump and the idler, and also the signal and the idler. It is then determined how much phase noise can be tolerated in the initial pump state if two-mode squeezing is to be produced in the signal-idler field. The relation between the rotational symmetry in phase space of the initial pump state and that of the signal-idler subsystem is determined. We find that the sum phase distribution of the signal and idler has twice the rotational symmetry as that of the initial pump state. Finally, we generalize the parametric approximation to treat pump states which are not coherent states. We examine the effect of a phase-squeezed pump state and find that the pump squeezing can actually decrease the two-mode squeezing of the signal-idler field while enhancing a form of higher-order squeezing, sum squeezing, for these fields.
Linear parametric amplification is a key operation in information processing. Our interest here is quantum-limited parametric amplification, i.e., amplification of quantum signals while adding the minimum amount of noise allowed by quantum mechanics, which is essential for any viable implementation of quantum information processing. We describe parametric amplifiers based on the dispersive nonlinearity of Josephson junctions driven with appropriate tones playing the role of pumps. We discuss two defining characteristics in the architecture of these amplifiers: the number of modes occupied by the signal, idler, and pump waves and the number of independent ports through which these waves enter into the circuit. The scattering properties of these amplifiers are also reviewed. The main focus of this work are the computations of the dynamic range and phase-space distributions of the fluctuations of the modes of the amplifiers.
We demonstrate quantum-noise correlations between the spatial frequencies of a parametrically amplified signal image and the generated conjugate (idler) image. Test images were amplified by an optical parametric amplifier that can be operated either as a low-pass or a band-pass amplifier for spatial frequencies. Direct difference detection of the signal and idler spatial frequencies at +- 16 mm{;{-1}} resulted in noise that fell below the shot-noise level by approx. 5 dB. Parametric-gain and phase-mismatch dependence of the observed quantum-noise reduction is in good agreement with the theory of a spatially-broadband optical parametric amplifier.
Superconducting traveling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) are essential elements for enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and thus the read-out fidelity of superconducting qubits because of their high gain and near quantum-limited noise. However, the impact of the pump source, e.g., phase noise on these amplifiers, has not yet been studied. In this work, we show that among the two amplification processes in JTWPAs, the three-wave mixing (3WM) process is more sensitive to the pump phase noise than the four-wave mixing (4WM) process. We show that the even-order nonlinearity of 4th order and above in three-wave mixing is responsible for more than 10 dB increase of phase noise at high frequency offsets within the phase noise mask as the power of the pump increases. A polynomial model of the amplifier and cyclo-stationary property of phase noise also corroborate with the simulations. The Harmonic Balance (HB) periodic noise analysis tool and Leeson phase noise model in Keysight Advanced Design System (ADS) simulator were used in this study.