Performance of cavity-parametric amplifiers, employing Kerr nonlinearites, in the presence of two-photon loss

Two-photon loss mechanisms often accompany a Kerr nonlinearity. The kinetic inductance exhibited by superconducting transmission lines provides an example of a Kerr-like nonlinearity that is accompanied by a nonlinear resistance of the two-photon absorptive type. Such nonlinear dissipation can degrade the performance of amplifiers and mixers employing a Kerr-like nonlinearity as the gain or mixing medium. As an aid for parametric-amplifier design, the authors provide a quantum analysis of a cavity parametric amplifier employing a Kerr nonlinearity that is accompanied by a two-photon absorptive loss. Because of their usefulness in diagnostics, we obtain expressions for the pump amplitude within the cavity, the reflection coefficient for the pump amplitude reflected off of the cavity, the parametric gain, and the intermodulation gain. Expressions by which the degree of squeezing can be computed are also presented. Although the focus here is on providing aids for the design of kinetic-inductance parametric amplifiers, much of what is presented is directly applicable to analogous optical and mechanical amplifiers.