Photonic Materials for Optical Communications
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Photonic Materials for Optical Communications
Hartmut Hillmer and Roland Germann, Guest Editors Abstract An overview of key materials for optical communications, including semiconductors, dielectrics, glasses, and organics, is presented in this issue of MRS Bulletin. Materials quality is in all cases crucial for advanced device and system performance. Materials properties and important problems are reviewed, and their impact on the performance of state-of-the-art optical devices is assessed and demonstrated by means of selected examples. Keywords: dielectrics, glasses, optical communications, organic materials, photonics, semiconductors.
The 20th century can be considered the century of electronics. The invention of the field-effect transistor in 1926 and the bipolar transistor in 1947, and the development of integrated circuits since 1958, have opened up our information age. As for the 21st century, many experts believe that it will be devoted to optics and nanostructures. Thus, we probably stand at the entrance to a century of photonics and nanosystems technology. Recent advances in modern photonics have always been strongly related to advances in materials fabrication and the understanding of the physics involved. Today’s application of photonic devices, components, and systems has recently spread to an enormously wide field, encompassing communications technology (datacom and telecom); illumination technology; indicator elements (i.e., control LEDs in the automotive field, measurement equipment, audio components, etc.); self-illuminating displays; projection displays such as digital micromirror technology and laser TV; opticalstorage technology; medical technology in diagnostics, health monitoring, and surgery; devices and systems for sensing and high-precision measurements, including environmental control as well as gas and liquid detection; high-precision alignment and distance control, collision-avoiding
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mobile systems; and finally, direct laser applications for cutting, welding, soldering, and drilling. This issue is devoted to photonic materials for optical communications. A broad set of active and passive devices is used in today’s optical communications systems. The optical part of such systems consists of light emitters and receivers, a medium for the light transmission, and devices for manipulating light in the optical domain. Light emitters are usually lasers or LEDs made of III–V semiconductor materials. Wavelengths around 1550 nm have become standard for long-haul applications in optical backbone networks because of the minimum propagation loss of optical fibers in this wavelength window. Shorter-range applications in local networks, optical interconnects, optical backplanes, and even on-board and on-chip communications are using shorter wavelengths, in the range of 1310 nm, 980 nm, 850 nm, or below. The writing and reading of information in storage devices, such as compact disks and digital versatile disks, can be considered a special kind of shortrange optical communication that makes use
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