Semiconductor lasers are essential components that enable high-speed long-haul communication and have been widely used for various applications in photonics technology. Semiconductor lasers under optical injection locking exhibit superior performance over free-running lasers and provide useful applications not achievable through the free-running lasers. The performance of injection-locked lasers has been found to be significantly improved with stronger injection. In this dissertation, the characteristics and applications of semiconductor lasers under strong optical injection locking are presented and analyzed in various aspects. First, ultra-strong (injection ratio R ̃10 dB) optical injection locking properties are investigated experimentally and theoretically. Direct modulation responses of ultra-strong optical injection-locked distributed feedback (DFB) lasers show three distinctive modulation characteristics depending on frequency detuning values. These different optical properties and electric modulation characteristics can be utilized in various applications such as analog fiber optic link, broadband digital communications, RF photonics and opto-electronic oscillators (OEOs). Using the strong injection-locked lasers, a novel single sideband generation has been demonstrated. A modulation sideband on the longer wavelength side is enhanced due to the resonant amplification by the slave laser's cavity mode, resulting in a 12-dB asymmetry at 20-GHz RF modulation. The dispersion limited RF bandwidth has been greatly increased by maintaining the variation of fiber transmission response within 7 dB up to 20-GHz RF carrier frequency over 80-km fiber transmission. Second, to improve fiber optic link performances, gain-lever distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers have been fabricated. With a gain-lever modulation, 9-dB increase of a link gain has been achieved compared with a standard modulation.

This book is composed of seven invited papers which present the current status of high speed diode lasers. Fast carrier and photon dynamics in directly modulated MQW lasers is analyzed and novel design approaches are considered which were critical for the demonstration and record of 40 GHz modulation bandwidth. Attention is centered on the challenges in creation of high speed and low chirp single mode DFB lasers. Recent progress in mode-locked diode lasers is covered, specifically by the examples of 160 fs pulse generation and appearance of microwave pulse repetition rates. Future trends in increasing of high speed laser performance are also examined.

The recent increase of internet traffic is creating demand for higher bandwidth in telecommunication networks. In order to satisfy this ever increasing demand for bandwidth, it is necessary to investigate new devices and technologies for all-optical signal processing that allow increasing the transmission data rate and the capacity for the current and future optical networks. Optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) is a widely deployed technique that allows increasing the bit rate and capacity of optical networks. In OTDM networks the regeneration and the demultiplexing of the data channels are two common and important functions normally carried out. However, they require a clock signal, which is usually implemented by optoelectronics components, making a system expensive, bulky and difficult to implement. In order to provide a solution to this issue, the focus of this thesis is to investigate all-optical clock recovery by using external injection locking of passively semiconductor mode-locked lasers. In particular, quantum-dash mode-locked laser diodes (QDash-MLLDs) are studied. These lasers can generate optical pulses with durations in the order of picoseconds and femtoseconds using only DC-bias with no need for external modulation. Besides, they are attractive due to their simplicity of operation, low power consumption, fast carrier dynamics and compactness. Furthermore, they provide a narrow radio frequency beating linewidth, resulting in a small amount of phase noise and low timing jitter. In this thesis, all-optical clock recovery of data signals at base bit rate (40 Gb/s) and high bit rates (up to 320 Gb/s) was achieved using QDash-MLLDs. The recovered clocks from the different data input signals considered in this thesis feature low values of timing jitter, which are compliant with the minimum requirements for practical applications. Furthermore, the recovered clocks at high speed are used to demultiplex signals to tributaries of 40 Gb/s, achieving error free performance. Finally, investigation of the QDash-MLLD dynamics demonstrated that the laser provides a very fast locking time (25 ns) when synchronised to data signals which enables it as a solution to optical burst/packet switched networks. All these results contribute to demonstrate that the laser is an extremely reliable, cost-effective and a green solution for all-optical signal processing.

This book describes the fascinating recent advances made concerning the chaos, stability and instability of semiconductor lasers, and discusses their applications and future prospects in detail. It emphasizes the dynamics in semiconductor lasers by optical and electronic feedback, optical injection, and injection current modulation. Applications of semiconductor laser chaos, control and noise, and semiconductor lasers are also demonstrated. Semiconductor lasers with new structures, such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers and broad-area semiconductor lasers, are intriguing and promising devices. Current topics include fast physical number generation using chaotic semiconductor lasers for secure communication, development of chaos, quantum-dot semiconductor lasers and quantum-cascade semiconductor lasers, and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. This fourth edition has been significantly expanded to reflect the latest developments. The fundamental theory of laser chaos and the chaotic dynamics in semiconductor lasers are discussed, but also for example the method of self-mixing interferometry in quantum-cascade lasers, which is indispensable in practical applications. Further, this edition covers chaos synchronization between two lasers and the application to secure optical communications. Another new topic is the consistency and synchronization property of many coupled semiconductor lasers in connection with the analogy of the dynamics between synaptic neurons and chaotic semiconductor lasers, which are compatible nonlinear dynamic elements. In particular, zero-lag synchronization between distant neurons plays a crucial role for information processing in the brain. Lastly, the book presents an application of the consistency and synchronization property in chaotic semiconductor lasers, namely a type of neuro-inspired information processing referred to as reservoir computing.

This timely book combines theory, applications, and projections on ultrafast diode lasers (UDL). A comprehensive treatment of UDLs from basic physical principles to applications in optical fiber communications and ultrafast electronics.

As rapid technological developments occur in electronics, photonics, mechanics, chemistry, and biology, the demand for portable, lightweight integrated microsystems is relentless. These devices are getting exponentially smaller, increasingly used in everything from video games, hearing aids, and pacemakers to more intricate biomedical engineering and military applications. Edited by Kris Iniewski, a revolutionary in the field of advanced semiconductor materials, Integrated Microsystems: Electronics, Photonics, and Biotechnology focuses on techniques for optimized design and fabrication of these intelligent miniaturized devices and systems. Composed of contributions from experts in academia and industry around the world, this reference covers processes compatible with CMOS integrated circuits, which combine computation, communications, sensing, and actuation capabilities. Light on math and physics, with a greater emphasis on microsystem design and configuration and electrical engineering, this book is organized in three sections—Microelectronics and Biosystems, Photonics and Imaging, and Biotechnology and MEMs. It addresses key topics, including physical and chemical sensing, imaging, smart actuation, and data fusion and management. Using tables, figures, and equations to help illustrate concepts, contributors examine and explain the potential of emerging applications for areas including biology, nanotechnology, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), microfluidics, and photonics.

Optical Fiber Telecommunications V (A&B) is the fifth in a series that has chronicled the progress in the research and development of lightwave communications since the early 1970s. Written by active authorities from academia and industry, this edition not only brings a fresh look to many essential topics but also focuses on network management and services. Using high bandwidth in a cost-effective manner for the development of customer applications is a central theme. This book is ideal for R&D engineers and managers, optical systems implementers, university researchers and students, network operators, and the investment community. Volume (A) is devoted to components and subsystems, including: semiconductor lasers, modulators, photodetectors, integrated photonic circuits, photonic crystals, specialty fibers, polarization-mode dispersion, electronic signal processing, MEMS, nonlinear optical signal processing, and quantum information technologies. Volume (B) is devoted to systems and networks, including: advanced modulation formats, coherent systems, time-multiplexed systems, performance monitoring, reconfigurable add-drop multiplexers, Ethernet technologies, broadband access and services, metro networks, long-haul transmission, optical switching, microwave photonics, computer interconnections, and simulation tools. Biographical Sketches Ivan Kaminow retired from Bell Labs in 1996 after a 42-year career. He conducted seminal studies on electrooptic modulators and materials, Raman scattering in ferroelectrics, integrated optics, semiconductor lasers (DBR , ridge-waveguide InGaAsP and multi-frequency), birefringent optical fibers, and WDM networks. Later, he led research on WDM components (EDFAs, AWGs and fiber Fabry-Perot Filters), and on WDM local and wide area networks. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a recipient of the IEEE/OSA John Tyndall, OSA Charles Townes and IEEE/LEOS Quantum Electronics Awards. Since 2004, he has been Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Tingye Li retired from AT&T in 1998 after a 41-year career at Bell Labs and AT&T Labs. His seminal work on laser resonator modes is considered a classic. Since the late 1960s, He and his groups have conducted pioneering studies on lightwave technologies and systems. He led the work on amplified WDM transmission systems and championed their deployment for upgrading network capacity. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He is a recipient of the IEEE David Sarnoff Award, IEEE/OSA John Tyndall Award, OSA Ives Medal/Quinn Endowment, AT&T Science and Technology Medal, and IEEE Photonics Award. Alan Willner has worked at AT&T Bell Labs and Bellcore, and he is Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California. He received the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House, Packard Foundation Fellowship, NSF National Young Investigator Award, Fulbright Foundation Senior Scholar, IEEE LEOS Distinguished Lecturer, and USC University-Wide Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a Fellow of IEEE and OSA, and he has been President of the IEEE LEOS, Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE/OSA J. of Lightwave Technology, Editor-in-Chief of Optics Letters, Co-Chair of the OSA Science & Engineering Council, and General Co-Chair of the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics. For nearly three decades, the OFT series has served as the comprehensive primary resource covering progress in the science and technology of optical fiber telecom. It has been essential for the bookshelves of scientists and engineers active in the field. OFT V provides updates on considerable progress in established disciplines, as well as introductions to new topics. [OFT V]... generates a value that is even higher than that of the sum of its chapters.

1.55-[micrometer] high-speed modelocked semiconductor lasers are theoretically and experimentally studied for various coherent photonic system applications. The modelocked semiconductor lasers (MSLs) are designed with high-speed ([greater than]5 GHz) external cavity configurations utilizing monolithic two-section curved semiconductor optical amplifiers. By exploiting the saturable absorber section of the monolithic device, passive or hybrid mode-locking techniques are used to generate short optical pulses with broadband optical frequency combs. Laser frequency stability is improved by applying the Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) frequency stabilization technique to the MSLs. The improved laser performance after the frequency stabilization (a frequency drifting of less than 350 MHz), is extensively studied with respect to the laser linewidth (~ 3 MHz), the relative intensity noise (RIN) ([less than]-150 dB/Hz), as well as the modal RIN (~ 3 dB reduction). MSL to MSL, and tunable laser to MSL synchronization is demonstrated by using a dual-mode injection technique and a modulation sideband injection technique, respectively. Dynamic locking behavior and locking bandwidth are experimentally and theoretically studied. Stable laser synchronization between two MSLs is demonstrated with an injection seed power on the order of a few microwatt. Several coherent heterodyne detections based on the synchronized MSL systems are demonstrated for applications in microwave photonic links and ultra-dense wavelength division multiplexing (UD-WDM) system. In addition, efficient coherent homodyne balanced receivers based on synchronized MSLs are developed and demonstrated for a spectrally phase-encoded optical CDMA (SPE-OCDMA) system.