Photonic Devices for Telecommunications: How to Model and Measure

Rating:
Summary: A classical Concerto
Review: All the relevant information about this book - its scope, its contents, its Authors, its Editor - can already be found - and is very well written - in the review by Professor Avramopoulos. Why writing another review, then ? My answer is simple. A book is not only a conveyor of information. It is also a source of emotions and feelings. I wish to try to describe mine, hoping that some other readers do recognize their own reactions in my words, and that more people will be tempted to see whether they agree with me.

Reaching the end of "Photonic Devices for Telecommunications" has been for me like listening to the last note of an outstanding musical performance. Why do I say that? Well, first of all, because I felt a strong wish to cheer the performers and to shout "Bravo". But there are further answers to this question, of course.

Most of the classical soloist concertos are divided in three movements, well distinct in terms of tempos, themes, structures, etc., but closely connected to each other, by the strict rules of harmony, and , at least in the case of masterpieces, by a common emotional thread. The same can be said about this book. Part I - which deals with photonic waveguide structures - is reminiscent of an opening "Allegro". The themes are sometimes in sharp contrast to one another, like in romantic music, but nonetheless they match together very well. Semiconductor lasers, the subject of Part II, are complicated devices, whose description and explanation must be handled with calm, paying all the necessary attention to many small details. That is why Part II reminds me of an inspired "Adagio ma non troppo". Part III - nonlinear effects in semiconductor amplifiers - is brilliant, full of fantasy: the most suitable "Finale" one could have thought of, after the "Adagio". Last but not least, Part I is about fifty percent longer than Part II and Part III: more or less, the same proportions that can be found between the movements in the most famous concertos.

Another point which a sensitive critic must touch upon, is that all the Authors enjoyed, before this performance, an outstanding reputation as soloists. In this case, they performed extremely well as members of a compact, well tuned, well trained ensemble. The conductor, Professor George Guekos, deserves to be praised very explicitly for giving the team a solid sense of unity, while leaving, at the same time, to each player in the orchestra the freedom of expressing himself or herself.

In my own future, there will be another observation, along the same guideline. The more I will be able to read the score and catch its details, the more I will love the music. I hope many other readers will share soon this pleasure with me. Or should I call them listeners ?

Rating:
Summary: An excellent, practical manual on photonic devices
Review: Photonic Devices for Telecommunications, G. Guekos ed.), Springer-Verlag, 404 pages, ISBN 3-540-64318-4

The book Photonics Devices for Telecommunications is the result of many years of collaboration between a number of leading European laboratories developing active semiconductor devices. The chapters have been contributed by leading researchers in the field and the book has been edited by Prof. Guekos of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, an eminent researcher of photonic semiconductor devices. The book is a well-rounded and balanced presentation, on a hard subject that is highly technical and heavy on mathematical detail. The result is a book that is captivating to study from end to end and is full of invaluable theoretical and experimental detail.

The book aims to fill the literature gap between normal textbooks on the physics of photonic semiconductor devices and archival journal publications, by providing the in-between layer of detail and knowledge. At this it performs remarkably well, as it provides a wealth of detail both at the simulation and experimental level, that is hard to come by. As such it would be invaluable to individual researchers entering the field to study either device technology development or subsystem development. It would also be an invaluable practical handbook to newly established research teams in academia or industry, as it can safeguard for potential costly mistakes in time and money. This book comes at a very opportune moment, with photonic technology witnessing a world-wide explosion in applications.

Part I consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 and 2 deal with the description of a number of numerical simulation techniques that are used in modelling of optical waveguide structures. These are distinguished into mode-solving techniques and beam propagation methods (BPM's). Chapter 3 presents comparisons between different modelling techniques against benchmark tests, in a number of participating laboratories in the frame of an international project. Chapter 4 details experimental techniques for the determination of key device characteristics and chapter 5 presents comparisons on their measurement.

Part II is dedicated to the distributed feedback laser. Chapter 6 describes the physical processes in a DFB laser structure and set a parameter standardisation that is used in chapter 7 for the modelling of the device. A number of numerical methods are detailed in chapter 7 and their results directly compared to give an invaluable insight in the accuracy and applicability of each technique. Chapter 8 discusses experimental determination of device characteristics, in a number of laboratories for a number of devices. Chapter 9 discusses device parameter extraction from experimental measurements, for use in device modelling.

There has been a lot of interest in four wave mixing (FWM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA's) and Part III of the book covers this. Chapters 10 and 11 present the theoretical background of FWM in SOA's. Chapter 12 discusses experimental set-ups for FWM performance measurements and result comparison between different laboratories. Finally chapter 13 explores related topics of FWM to currently developing research areas.

I have found particularly useful the detailed description of numerical and experimental techniques, which also include useful tips where a researcher must be careful. Also unique to this book is the round-robin concept of measurement in specific devices and comparisons of simulation techniques. These are highly valuable exercises, as they exemplify the non-exact-reproducibility of measurements and simulation results and they can be used to set acceptance margins on specific device measurements and simulations.

The book is written with a practical/implementation view in mind, rather than an abstract, theoretical approach. It is a book well worth the investment of money to buy and time to study, for engineers and scientists actively practising in the area of photonic device development and use.