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Talk:Optical parametric amplifier

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The article does not clarify the connection between nonlinear optics and parametric amplification, e.g. what type/order of nonlinearity is exploited. Some diagrams would be very helpful to the non-expert. There should be a clearer border between the the physical process and experimental/technical implementations. Nonetheless the article states nice details about what problems can occour in real-world implementations. Dwkdwk 12:51, 6 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Which is the "signal" and which is the "idler"?

The sentence "Light with ordinary and extraordinary polarizations are generated; the ordinary light is called the signal and the extraordinary light is called the idler." is wrong, therefore I have deleted it. --Ahellwig (talk) 18:32, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Personally I've heard two definitions:
  • The lower-frequency one is the "idler" and the higher-frequency one is the "signal".
  • The one that is an external input is the "signal" and the other is the "idler".
I'm not sure how common/uncommon each of these is. --Steve (talk) 22:04, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]


I agree with Ahellwig that the definitions in terms of polarisation were wrong. The polarisation is simply dictated by the type of phase matching used in amplification. I have only ever heard signal defined as the beam with an external input, as it is this which is being amplified. This is the definition used in the following standard textbooks:
  • A. Weiner, Ultrafast Optics (Wiley Series in Pure and Applied Optics) (Wiley, 2009), ISBN 0471415391, pp
  • R. W. Boyd, Nonlinear Optics (2003), 2nd ed., ISBN 0121216829
--MarseHole (talk) 20:41, 18 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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