Selected topics in modern photonics

Prof. Roberto Morandotti
Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique - Energie, Materiaux et Telecommunications (INRS-EMT), University du Quebec, Montreal, Canada

15 hours, 4 credits

October 13 - October 16, 2009

Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione: Elettronica, Informatica, Telecomunicazioni, via Caruso, meeting room, ground floor

Contacts: Ing. Giovanni Pennelli

Aims

The goal of this series of lessons is to provide an overview on some of the hot topics in contemporary photonics. After a brief introduction on all-optical networks, we will examine the basics of the design / fabrication / characterization of photonics devices, including standard components (lasers, modulators etc.) as well as more unconventional devices (such as integrated ring resonators, Bragg Gratings etc).

Syllabus

All-optical networks (3 hours)
Overview of fiber-optic communications; optical fibers; optical transmitters; optical receivers; lightwave systems; optical amplifiers; dispersion management; multichannel systems; soliton systems.
How to make a photonic device from scratch: design, fabrication and characterization (3 hours)
Semiconductor optical material systems (III-Vs and silicon); the waveguide and its design; fundamental of waveguide fabrication: photolithography and ion-etching; characterization of photonics devices.
Opto-electronic components and devices (3 hours)
Photonics devices: lasers, modulators, and detectors; packing many devices together: integration and hybridization.
Contemporary optics: fundamental of classical nonlinear optics (3 hours)
Nonlinear optical media; second order nonlinear optics; third-order nonlinear optics; optical solitons; continuous and discrete nonlinear systems.
Extreme optical sources: the terahertz regime (3 hours)
The overview of terahertz radiation (generation and detection); application of terahertz radiation; the dawn of THz nonlinear optics.