Supercontinuum generation as a signal amplifier

Supercontinuum white-light generation in optical fibers is a process that is known for its extreme sensitivity toward fluctuations of the input pulses, giving rise to a strong amplification of input noise. Such noise amplification has been recognized as a detrimental effect that prevents compression of the broad white-light spectra into a few-cycle pulse. Here, we show that the same effect can be exploited to amplify and recover faint modulation signals to an extent that seems impossible with any electronic method. We experimentally demonstrate the deterministic amplification of faint amplitude modulation signals by up to 60 dB. As we show from numerical simulations, this amplification process arises from the interaction dynamics between solitons and dispersive radiation in the fiber. The resulting all-optic signal restoration provides a new photonic building block that enables signal processing at virtually unlimited processing speeds. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America