Powerful, flexible, and compact ultra-broadband photonic-chip-based traveling-wave parametric amplifier boosts optical signals

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1076572

"overcomes amplifiers' limited spectral bandwidth, complexity, energy use... gallium phosphide (strong optical nonlinearity, high refractive index) on silicon dioxide, >10 (up to 35) dB net gain across 140 nm bandwidth (3X wider)... optical nonlinearity instead of rare-earth elements strengthen signals... tiny spiral waveguide creates space where light waves reinforce each other, boosting weak signals/ keeping noise low... high gain with few cm long waveguide... handles input powers ranging >6 orders of magnitude"