Tunable Laser Diodes

by Markus Christian Amann, Jens Buus

Here's the first and only single-source survey of monolithic tunable semiconductor lasers including the latest applications in optical communication systems. This comprehensive reference discusses the underlying physics, operational principles, and performance and applications of tunable laser diodes. Tuning mechanisms, properties, and laser structures are described and compared in great detail, including continuously tunable lasers with a moderate tuning range and lasers with a very wide tuning range. The various approaches for continuous and discontinuous wavelength tuning are introduced and device structures and experimental results are presented. Supplemented with practical examples and helpful notations, the book provides you with a comprehensive understanding of semiconductor lasers in general, and the specific knowledge you need to appreciate the trade-offs among laser properties and the capabilities and limitations of semiconductor lasers. Communication engineers will appreciate the valuable discussion of the increasing demand on transmission capacity in optical communication systems and advanced transmission techniques such as wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technique and coherent optical detection schemes. Tunable Laser Diodes is an excellent resource for research and development laser engineers, communication device and system engineers, optical system design engineers, university researchers, teachers, and graduate students.

308 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1998