Power evolution along phase-sensitive parametric amplifiers: an experimental survey

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a method based on Brillouin optical time-domain analysis to measure the longitudinal signal power distribution along phase-sensitive fiber-optical parametric amplifiers (PS-FOPAs). Experimental results show that the amplification of a PS-FOPA could go through different longitudinal profiles and yet finish with the same overall gain. This behavior is in sheer contrast with theoretical expectations, according to which longitudinal gain distribution should follow certain profiles determined by the initial relative phase difference but can never end up in the same overall gain. The gap between theory and experiment only becomes evident when the pump wavelength is within the fluctuation range of the zero dispersion wavelength (ZDW) of the PS-FOPA.