Tandem chirped quasi-phase-matching grating optical parametric amplifier design for simultaneous group delay and gain control

We present a broadband optical parametric amplifier design using tapered gain and tandem chirped quasiphase-matching gratings to obtain flat gain and group-delay spectra suitable for applications such as ultrashort-pulse amplification and fiber-optic communication systems. Although a tapered-gain amplifier consisting of a single chirped grating can provide constant gain over a wide frequency range, it cannot be used to control the group delay across the spectrum. We propose controlling both the gain and the group delay profiles using a two-stage amplifier configuration, in which the idler of the first is used as the input signal of the second. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.