Large regenerative parametric amplification on chip at ultra-low pump powers

Chip-based optical amplifiers can significantly expand the functionalities of photonic devices. In particular, optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs), with engineerable gain spectra, are well suited for nonlinear-photonic applications. Chip-based OPAs typically require long waveguides that occupy a large footprint, and high pump powers that cannot be easily produced with chip-scale lasers. We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate a microresonator-assisted regenerative OPA that benefits from the large nonlinearity enhancement of microresonators and yields a high gain in a small footprint. We achieve 30-dB parametric gain with only 9 mW of cw pump power and show that the gain spectrum can be engineered to cover telecom channels inaccessible with Er-based amplifiers. We further demonstrate the amplification of Kerr-soliton comb lines and the preservation of their phase properties. Additionally, we demonstrate amplification by injection locking of optical parametric oscillators (OPOs), which corresponds to a regenerative amplifier pumped above the oscillation threshold. Dispersion engineering techniques such as coupled cavities and higher-order-dispersion phase matching can further extend the tunability and spectral coverage of our amplification schemes. The combination of high gain, small footprint, low pump power, and flexible gain-spectrum engineering of our regenerative OPA is ideal for amplifying signals from the nanowatt to microwatt regimes for portable or space-based devices where ultralow electrical power levels are required and can lead to important applications in on-chip optical-, and microwave-frequency synthesis and precise timekeeping. (c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica

Automated summary

Chip-based optical amplifiers, specifically microresonator-assisted regenerative optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs), offer engineerable gain spectra and compact footprint. This study demonstrates a high-gain microresonator-assisted regenerative OPA, achieving 30-dB parametric gain with only 9 mW of continuous-wave (cw) pump power. The gain spectrum can be engineered to cover telecom channels inaccessible with traditional amplifiers. The flexible gain-spectrum engineering and low power requirements of this OPA make it well-suited for on-chip optical and microwave frequency synthesis applications.