Noise figure reduction in two-stage parametric amplifier by idler filtering

S. Iu. Medvedev, O. V. Muzychuk

O. V. Muzychuk

Colin J. McKinstrie, James M. Dailey, Anjali Agarwal +1 more

A cascaded parametric amplifier consists of a first parametric amplifier, which amplifies an input signal and generates an idler, which is a copy of the signal, a signal processor, which controls the phases of the signal and idler, and a second parametric amplifier, which combines the signal and idler in a phase-sensitive manner. In this paper, cascaded parametric amplification is modeled and the conditions required to maximize the constructive-destructive extinction ratio are determined. The results show that a cascaded parametric amplifier can be operated as a filter: A desired signal-idler pair is amplified, whereas undesired signal-idler pairs are deamplified. For the desired signal and idler, the noise figures of the filtering process (input signal-to-noise ratio divided by the output ratios) are only slightly higher than those of the copying process: Signal-processing functionality can be achieved with only a minor degradation in signal quality.

H. J. C. Blume

Anup R. Pandey, Joseph W. Haus, Peter Powers

We present a numerical model of a multi-crystal approach that increases the quantum efficiency of a parametric amplifier. Here is a two-crystal approach where the second stage crystal uses the signal energy from the first stage to amplify the desired idler wavelength. The numerical model allows for arbitrary input beam profiles and it can accommodate multiple crystals and optical elements. In this study a pair of PPLN crystals was modeled leading to more than double the idler output energy. The maximum M2 value for the output idler beam calculated was 5.2.

M. G. Mishanina, O. V. Muzychuk