High-nonlinearity fiber optical parametric amplifier with periodic dispersion compensation

Abstract

Theory shows that the maximum gain and bandwidth of one-pump fiber optical parametric amplifiers made from high-nonlinearity fiber, operated with a pump wavelength /spl lambda//sub p/ far from the fiber zero-dispersion wavelength /spl lambda//sub 0/ can greatly be improved by periodic dispersion compensation. We have performed experiments and obtained good agreement with theory: for /spl lambda//sub p/=1542 and /spl lambda//sub 0/=1591 nm, we have increased the bandwidth from 7 to 28 nm, and the maximum gain from 15 to 20 dB, by splicing three pieces of standard fiber at regular intervals in a 40-m long nonlinear fiber.