Vol. 33

Laurent Schares,
Mode-locked fiber ring lasers
with semiconductor optical amplifiers
for repetition rates between 10 and 160 GHz.
1^st edition 2004. XII, 190 pages, € 64,00.ISBN 3-89649-922-X

Versatile high-quality optical pulse sources running at repetition rates of tens or even hundreds of Gigahertz are required for numerous applications in high-speed optical communication systems. This book presents a novel method to generate such pulses, based on optically controlled modulators with semiconductor optical amplifiers in fiber ring lasers. Following a useful comparison to state-of-the-art optical pulse generators, detailed design guidelines show how to optimise the lasers and to achieve repetition rates up to 160 GHz, sub-picosecond pulse widths or peak powers of several Watts. Particular emphasis is put on the role of semiconductor optical amplifiers, whose switching characteristics are essential to generate high-repetition rate pulses. This book contains a large number of original contributions in the field of optical switch dynamics and in their practical implementation in high-speed optical pulse generators.
Laurent Schares graduated with a diploma and a PhD degree in physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland, in 1998 and 2003, respectively. Since 1999, he has been with the Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich, where he has been involved in research on semiconductor optical amplifiers and on high repetition rate fiber lasers. He participated in several European research projects in the field of optical communications and has co-authored more than 30 research publications in international journals and conferences.

Series in Quantum Electronics

Direkt bestellen bei / to order directly from: Hartung.Gorre@t-online.de