Broadband parametric amplification in AlGaAs-on-insulator nanowaveguides

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates broadband optical parametric amplification in AlGaAs-on-insulator nanowaveguides, achieving record gain and bandwidth for on-chip amplifiers using four-wave mixing.

Contribution

It reports the largest parametric gain and bandwidth for on-chip amplifiers, enabled by strong nonlinearity and dispersion engineering in AlGaAs nanowaveguides.

Findings

On-chip gain of 56.2 dB achieved

Net gain bandwidth exceeds 415 nm

Largest reported parametric gain and bandwidth for such amplifiers

Abstract

Optical amplification is critical for optical signal transmission. While the emergence of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers has revolutionized optical communications in fiber-based systems, on-chip amplification remains essential for integrated optics. Nanoscale waveguides enhance nonlinearity by several orders of magnitude, making them promising candidates for optical parametric amplification. Using a pulsed pump at 1550 nm, broadband optical parametric amplification based on four-wave mixing is investigated in AlGaAs-on-insulator nanowaveguides. The strong nonlinearity enables an on-off gain as high as 58.4 dB. Meanwhile, the low propagation loss leads to a net on-chip gain of 56.2 dB. With further dispersion engineering, the net on-chip gain bandwidth extends beyond 415 nm, which is 2.3 times larger than previous reports pumped in the telecom band in integrated optics. These results represent the largest parametric gain and bandwidth reported for on-chip parametric amplifiers.