Performance analysis of dual-pump optical parametric amplifiers in silicon waveguide

Nondegenerate Four Wave Mixing (FWM) process in a silicon waveguide is influenced by two photon absorption (TPA), TPA induced free carrier absorption (FCA) besides self-phase modulation (SPM), cross-phase modulation (XPM), SRS, GVD and linear scattering losses. Influences of pump parameters of the dual-pump parametric amplifier (OPA) in the silicon waveguide on gain spectrum and noise figure are numerically investigated. Compared with single-pump configuration, dual-pump silicon OPA indicates a flat gain and noise figure. Then impact of waveguide dispersion on bandwidth and ripples for dual-pump silicon optical parametric amplifiers is discussed. Optimal pump configurations are evaluated. The results show that polarization independent net gain of silicon OPA can be achieved by using circular and orthogonally polarized pump.