431-466 Photonic Devices and Systems

431-329 Electromagnetics, 431-222 Electronic Devices and Circuits

On completion of this subject students should have obtained an appreciation of the role of semiconductor materials in state-of-the-art photonic devices and novel device fabrication technologies, have a working knowledge of the operation of a wide range of optoelectronic devices, understand the underlying principles of fibre-optic communications, be able to analyse the operation of optical fibre transmission systems and understand the application of optical fibre in telecommunications systems and networks.

Topics include review of beam propagation in optical fibre, single and multi-mode fibre, dispersion, frequency response, attenuation, absorption and scattering, review of optical fibre components, review of interaction of radiation and atomic systems, absorption and amplification, theory of laser oscillation, Fabry-Perot lasers, distributed feedback lasers, distributed Bragg reflector lasers, quantum well lasers, strained layer lasers, rate equation description of laser dynamics, short pulse generation techniques, Erbium doped fibre and semiconductor laser amplifiers, electro-optic materials, electro-optic amplitude modulators, phase modulation of light, optical switches, semiconductor photodiodes, avalanche photodiodes, integrated photonics, noise in optical communication systems, thermal and quantum noise, error detection probability for optical receivers, system design relations, link budget calculations, applications of advanced optical devices such as optical amplifiers, filters and switches in subcarrier multiplexing, wavelength division multiplexing, coherent transmission, trunk networks, video distribution systems, and customer access networks.

One 3-hour end-of-semester written examination (70%); mid-semester test and/or project report not exceeding 20 pages including appendices, diagrams, tables, graphs and computer output (30%). The relative weighting of test and/or project report will be specified both in the first lecture and on the subject web page at the start of semester.