Two-octave spanning single pump parametric amplification at 1550 nm in a host lead-silicate binary multi-clad microstructure fiber: Influence of multi-order dispersion engineering

Abstract

An ultra-wide 1646nm (1084–2730nm), continuous-wave single pump parametric amplification spanning from near-infrared to short-wave infrared band (NIR-SWIR) in a host lead-silicate based binary multi-clad microstructure fiber (BMMF) is analyzed and reported. This ultra-broad band (widest reported to date) parametric amplification with gain more than 10dB is theoretically achieved by a combination of low input pump power source ~7W and a short-length of ~70cm of nonlinear-BMMF through accurately engineered multi-order dispersion coefficients. A highly efficient theoretical formulation based on four-wave-mixing (FWM) is worked out to determine fiber׳s chromatic dispersion (D) profile which is used to optimise the gain-bandwidth and ripple of the parametric gain profile. It is seen that by appropriately controlling the higher-order dispersion coefficient (up-to sixth order), a great enhancement in the gain-bandwidth (2–3 times) can be achieved when operated very close to zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) in the anomalous dispersion regime. Moreover, the proposed theoretical model can predict the maximum realizable spectral width and the required pump-detuning (w.r.t ZDW) of any advanced complex microstructured fiber. Our thorough investigation of the wide variety of broadband gain spectra obtained as an integral part of this research work opens up the way for realizing amplification in the region (SWIR) located far from the pump (NIR) where good amplifiers currently do not exist.