Photonics chip allows light amplification

Photonics chip allows light amplification
Photonic chip-based, continuous-traveling-wave optical parametric amplification and frequency conversion. (a) Schematic of experimental setup. The pump laser can be modulated (Mod.) in phase and amplitude before amplification in a highpower EDFA. An optical circulator and a beam dump are used to suppress the back-reflection from the chip into the EDFA, which are not shown here. Amplified spontaneous emission noise is suppressed using a tunable bandpass filter (TBPF). The pump and signal lasers are combined using a 20 dB directional coupler (99/1) before coupling into the photonic chip using lensed fibers and inverse tapers. The output light is sent to an optical spectrum analyzer (OSA). The amplified and modulated signal light is filtered, detected with a photodiode, and analyzed using a digital oscilloscope (OSC). (b) Wavelength and power dependent gain of the system. Measured input (P in ) and output powers (Pout) using two power meters are marked in the legend. Dashed gray line is the total loss including the fiber-chip coupling losses (two facets) and optical propagation loss in the Si 3 N 4 waveguide spiral. (c) Simulated gain spectra for the 2-meter-long waveguide spiral. Black dotted line indicates threshold for on-chip gain. Black solid line indicates threshold for off-chip gain. (d,e) Same as (b,c) but indicating the frequency conversion efficiency from the pump to the idler. Credit: Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05329-1

The ability to achieve quantum-limited amplification of optical signals contained in optical fibers is arguably among the most important technological advances that are underlying our modern information society. In optical telecommunications, the choice of 1550 nm wavelength band is motivated not only by loss minima of silica optical fibers (a development recognized with the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics), but equally by the existence of ways to amplify these signals, crucial to achieve trans-oceanic fiber optical communication.

Optical plays a key role in virtually all laser-based technologies such as , used for instance in data-centers to communicate between servers and between continents through trans-oceanic fiber links, to ranging applications like coherent Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) LiDAR—an that can detect and track objects farther, faster, and with greater precision than ever before.

Today, based on rare-earth ions like erbium, as well as III-V semiconductors, are widely used in real-world applications.

These two approaches are based on amplification by optical transitions. But there is another paradigm of optical signal amplification: traveling-wave parametric amplifiers, which achieve signal amplification by varying a small system "parameter", such as the capacitance or the nonlinearity of a transmission line.

Optical parametric amplifiers

It has been known since the 80's that the intrinsic nonlinearity of optical fibers can also be harnessed to create traveling-wave optical parametric amplifiers, whose gain is independent of atomic or semiconductor transitions, which means that it can be broad-band and virtually cover any wavelength.

Parametric amplifiers also do not suffer from a minimum input signal, which means that they can be used to amplify both the faintest signals and large input power in a single setting. And finally, the gain spectrum can be tailored by waveguide geometry optimization and dispersion engineering, which offers enormous design flexibility for target wavelengths and applications.

Most intriguingly, parametric gain can be derived in unusual wavelength bands that are out of reach of conventional semiconductors or rare-earth-doped fibers. Parametric amplification is inherently quantum-limited, and can even achieve noiseless amplification.

Silicon limitations

Despite their attractive features, optical parametric amplifiers in fibers are compounded by their very high pump power requirements resulting from the weak Kerr nonlinearity of silica. Over the past two decades, the advances in integrated photonic platforms have enabled significantly enhanced effective Kerr nonlinearity that cannot be achieved in silica fibers, but have not achieved continuous-wave-operated amplifiers.

"Operating in the continuous-wave regime is not a mere 'academic achievement'," says Professor Tobias Kippenberg, head of EPFL's Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements at EPFL.

"In fact, it is crucial to the practical operation of any amplifier, as it implies that any input signals can be amplified—for example, optically encoded information, signals from LiDAR, sensors, etc. Time- and spectrum-continuous, traveling-wave amplification is pivotal for successful implementation of amplifier technologies in modern optical communication systems and emerging applications for optical sensing and ranging."

Breakthrough photonic chip

A new study led by Dr. Johann Riemensberger in Kippenberg's group has now addressed the challenge by developing a traveling-wave amplifier based on a photonic integrated circuit operating in the continuous regime. "Our results are a culmination of more than a decade of research effort in integrated nonlinear photonics and the pursuit of ever lower waveguide losses," says Riemensberger.

The researchers used an ultralow-loss silicon nitride photonic integrated circuit more than two meters long to build the first traveling-wave amplifier on a 3x5 mm2 in size. The chip operates in the continuous regime and provides 7 dB net gain on-chip and 2 dB net gain fiber-to-fiber in the telecommunication bands. On-chip net-gain parametric amplification in silicon nitride was also recently achieved by the groups of Victor Torres-Company and Peter Andrekson at Chalmers University.

In the future, the team can use precise lithographic control to optimize the waveguide dispersion for parametric gain bandwidth of more than 200 nm. And since the fundamental absorption loss of silicon nitride is very low (around 0.15 dB/meter), further fabrication optimizations can push the chip's maximum parametric gain beyond 70 dB with only 750 mW of pump power, exceeding the performance of the best fiber-based amplifiers.

"The application areas of such amplifiers are unlimited," says Kippenberg. "From optical communications where one could extend signals beyond the typical telecommunication bands, to mid-infrared or visible laser and signal amplification, to LiDAR or other applications where lasers are used to probe, sense and interrogate classical or quantum signals."

The paper is published in the journal Nature.

More information: Tobias Kippenberg, A photonic integrated continuous-travelling-wave parametric amplifier, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05329-1. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05329-1

Journal information: Nature

Citation: Photonics chip allows light amplification (2022, November 30) retrieved 19 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2022-11-photonics-chip-amplification.html
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