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Optics Letters

Enhancement of out-of-band rejection in optical filters based on phase-sensitive amplification

Anjali Agarwal, James M. Dailey, Colin J. McKinstrie, P. Toliver

Published Jun 14, 2016• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a novel optical filter based on amplification and deamplification in a phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA), whose out-of-band rejection is enhanced by slightly imbalancing the inputs to the PSA. The out-of-band rejection of the PSA-based filter with balanced input signal and idler powers is given by G2 in the optical domain, where G is the maximum phase-sensitive gain. By unbalancing the input to the PSA, the optical out-of-band rejection is significantly enhanced beyond G2, thus enabling filters with high rejection even with moderate-gain PSAs. We demonstrate a filter with optical and electrical extinctions of 29 dB and 60 dB, respectively, using a moderate PSA gain of only 10 dB. Further, this technique allows for ultrawideband frequency tuning, spanning multiterahertz bandwidths along with filter response reconfigurability. These novel concepts will be invaluable for optical signal processing in high-performance analog and digital systems.

DOI
10.1364/ol.41.002847

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We present a novel optical filter based on amplification and deamplification in a phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA), whose out-of-band rejection is enhanced by slightly imbalancing the inputs to the PSA. The out-of-band rejection of the PSA-based filter with balanced input signal and idler powers is given by G2 in the optical domain, where G is the maximum phase-sensitive gain. By unbalancing the input to the PSA, the optical out-of-band rejection is significantly enhanced beyond G2, thus enabling filters with high rejection even with moderate-gain PSAs. We demonstrate a filter with optical and electrical extinctions of 29 dB and 60 dB, respectively, using a moderate PSA gain of only 10 dB. Further, this technique allows for ultrawideband frequency tuning, spanning multiterahertz bandwidths along with filter response reconfigurability. These novel concepts will be invaluable for optical signal processing in high-performance analog and digital systems.
We present a novel reconfigurable optical add-drop filter based on phase-sensitive amplifiers (PSAs). By manipulating the relative phase among an optical pump, signals, and idlers, spectral selectivity can be achieved along with low noise amplification. The use of backward Raman amplification enhances the phase-sensitive operation of the parametric process, enabling higher stopband isolation and lower intra-band crosstalk. A Raman-assisted phase-sensitive amplifier (RA-PSA) is characterized in detail, showing a 7.8-dB combined gain extinction ratio enhancement and 10.85-dB gain improvement. For the first time, we demonstrate an RA-PSA enabled optical add-drop filter with less than 0.4-dB penalty using three-channel QPSK signals. The novel scheme provides a simple way to enhance the extinction ratio of the PSA enabled add-drop filter, which can be an essential subsystem in optical links based on phase-sensitive amplification.
Phase sensitive amplification (PSA) is a remarkably powerful tool if implemented correctly - it allows amplification with a noise figure lower than quantum mechanics normally dictates, and also allows the development of systems that coherently process the phase of their optical inputs. PSA at infrared wavelengths can be achieved using second or third order optical nonlinearities - indeed the first demonstrations of PSA utilised degenerate three photon mixing in bulk crystals, allowing the observation of effects such as quantum quadrature squeezing. This PhD research project was aimed at translating the fascinating science of PSAs into applications, based on Kerr nonlinearity in optical fibres, capable of being deployed in modern core optical networks runnning at 40 Gbit/s and higher. This objective was an integral part of the European Union FP7 project PHASORS. Studies, both theoretical and experimental, were carried out on wideband non-degenerate PSAs. The inline cascaded fiber optic parametric amplifier (FOPA), in which a first phase insensitive FOPA is used to generate phase locked signal-idler pairs, followed by a second FOPA in which PSA takes place, was used to experimentally demonstrate PSA gain characteristics in linear and saturated modes of operation, with PSA obtained over 20 nm in the telecom C-band. Focus was then re-directed towards applying a dual pump PSA to DPSK regeneration. The amplitude and phase limiting characteristics of these devices were experimentally studied, in particular revealing that amplitude saturation arises due to an interplay between input phase and nonlinear phase matching along the nonlinear fibre. This feature was used to identify a regime of operation for DPSK regeneration combining simultaneous phase and amplitude regeneration. A practical DPSK regenerator based on a degenerate dual pump phase sensitive FOPA was built. The device advanced the state of the art by incorporating a pump synthesis stage that allowed black-box operation. Detailed measurements using noise sources with varying frequency distributions in both amplitude and in phase, are presented, and the ability of the system to improve the phase and amplitude characteristics of signals at its input was verified. Also presented are results showing the regenerator installed in the middle of an 800 km dark fiber link. Finally, a novel scheme was proposed and demonstrated that utilised parametric mixing to perform arbitrary phase quantization. This relied on the coherent addition of an M-level PSK signal with a conjugated (M-1)th phase harmonic, scaled by a coefficient m, to achieve M-level phase quantization. The concept was successfully demonstrated with QPSK data signals at 56 Gbaud, as well as used to quantize lower bandwidth test signals from 2 to 6 phase levels.
Frequency nondegenerate phase-sensitive amplifiers (PSAs) have the potential to realize broadband and noiseless amplification. However, the rigorous requirement of phase- and wavelength-locking of the input waves has significantly hampered their progress. In this paper, we review recent research on this type of optical amplifier. This work is based on a copier-PSA scheme, which consists of a parametric phase-insensitive copier followed by one or more PSAs. Broadband gain and noise performance of a fiber-based nondegenerate PSA has been characterized, both theoretically and experimentally. A record-low 1.1 dB noise figure was measured at >;26 dB gain, and a clear phase dependent gain was observed. Moreover, potential applications including phase noise squeezing and ultralow noise, multichannel and modulation-format-transparent linear amplification with up to 6 dB link noise figure advantage over conventional EDFA-amplified links have been experimentally demonstrated. The prospects and practical challenges of this intriguing amplification technology are also discussed.
We experimentally demonstrate a single-pumped, non-degenerate phase-sensitive parametric amplifier with a precise control of phase and amplitude of the in-going waves and investigate in detail its gain, attenuation and saturation properties in comparison with operation in phase insensitive amplifier (PIA) mode. We experimentally observe the variation of the gain and attenuation as a function of the relative phase, pump power and the signal-idler power ratio. The phase sensitive gain spectrum is studied over a 24 nm symmetrical bandwidth and we achieve a maximum phase sensitive amplification (PSA) gain of 33 dB. A departure from the theoretical maximum attenuation as the gain increases is observed and explained.
We demonstrate a balanced-homodyne LADAR receiver employing a phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA) to raise the effective photon detection efficiency (PDE) to nearly 100%. Since typical LADAR receivers suffer from losses in the receive optical train that routinely limit overall PDE to less than 50% thus degrading SNR, PSA can provide significant improvement through amplification with noise figure near 0 dB. Receiver inefficiencies arise from sub-unity quantum efficiency, array fill factors, signal-local oscillator mixing efficiency (in coherent receivers), etc. The quantum-enhanced LADAR receiver described herein is employed in target discrimination scenarios as well as in imaging applications. We present results showing the improvement in detection performance achieved with a PSA, and discuss the performance advantage when compared to the use of a phase-insensitive amplifier, which cannot amplify noiselessly.