Patent ID: 7630126

Claim:
A two-pump optical parametric device, OPD, adapted to generate a desired output signal, comprising: an optical medium that exhibits four-wave mixing; one or more polarization couplers that apply a first polarized pump P 1 , a second polarized pump P 2 , and a polarized input signal S to the optical medium, wherein a frequency of the pump P 1 is lower than a frequency of the pump P 2 ; and an optical filter that selects an idler I or an amplified signal S as the desired output signal, wherein: the idler I is coupled to the pumps P 1 and P 2 and the signal S via said four-wave mixing; and the one or more polarization couplers apply the pump P 1 , the pump P 2 , and the input signal S to the optical medium so that, in a set of four optical signals consisting of the pumps P 1 and P 2 , the signal S, and the idler I, two of the optical signals have a first polarization and the remaining two of the optical signals have a second polarization orthogonal to the first polarization.