
peak pump powers to observe measurable parametric gain. Recent advances in
single-frequency, high-power optical pumping, high-confinement fiber, and sup-
pression techniques for stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) have created the
conditions necessary for CW parametric processing. Indeed, a number of record
results have indicated not only the practicality of the technology, but, in certain
cases, its superiority with respect to established technologies. Unlike ion-based
(i.e., erbium) techniques, fiber parametric amplifier (FPA) is not confined to any
spectral window, and, in principle, can provide gain bandwidths exceeding that of
the combined