CRC Press Ultrafast Photonics - Scottish Graduate Series 56

Ultrafast photonics has emerged as an interdisciplinary field of high international research interest. This volume, part of the Scottish Graduate Series, contains the proceedings from the Fifty-Sixth Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics held in St Andrews in September 2002. The text covers the development of compact and efficient lasers that produce optical pulses within the femtosecond time domain. It explores the foundations of modern long-haul telecommunications systems, which rely on the transmission of short laser light pulses through silicon optical fibres. The content also addresses the role of Erbium-doped fibre amplifiers in periodically regenerating signals, a key component in the successful opto-electronics industry.