Gain and noise characteristics of high-bit-rate silicon parametric amplifiers

We report a numerical investigation on parametric amplification of high-bit-rate signals and related noise figure inside silicon waveguides in the presence of two-photon absorption (TPA), TPA-induced free-carrier absorption, free-carrier-induced dispersion and linear loss. Different pump parameters are considered to achieve net gain and low noise figure. We show that the net gain can only be achieved in the anomalous dispersion regime at the high-repetition-rate, if short pulses are used. An evaluation of noise properties of parametric amplification in silicon waveguides is presented. By choosing pulsed pump in suitably designed silicon waveguides, parametric amplification can be a chip-scale solution in the high- speed optical communication and optical signal processing systems. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America