Autoresonant four-wave mixing in optical fibers

A theory of autoresonant four-wave mixing in tapered fibers is developed in application to optical parametric amplification (OPA). In autoresonance, the interacting waves (two pump waves, a signal, and an idler) stay phase-locked continuously despite variation of system parameters (spatial tapering). This spatially extended phase-locking allows complete pump depletion in the system and uniform amplification spectrum in a wide frequency band. Different aspects of autoresonant OPA are described including the automatic initial phase-locking, conditions for autoresonant transition, stability, and spatial range of the autoresonant interaction.