The fourteenth Annual Meeting of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) will be held from November 12-15, in San Diego, California. Submissions to the conference continue to climb, and the technical sessions promise to be as vigorous as ever. This year’s meeting will feature both old and new activities. Old favorites include a stellar set of plenary talks to kick-off the meeting. This year’s talks are “Optical Bits & Pieces: Fibers to Amplifiers” by Donald Keck of Corning, “Femtosecond Technology: A New Industrial Technology Platform”by Teruo Sakurai of FESTA, and “Optical Networking Research in Europe,” by Mike O’Mahony of the University of Essex. In addition to the plenary talks, the annual meeting will feature a large selection of invited talks, the hallmark of the LEOS Annual Meeting. As always, the special symposia for this years meeting cover a variety of “hot”topic areas; Optical MEM’s, New Windows of Amplification, Photonic Crystals: New Dimensions in the Control of Light, and Lasers in Medicine and Biology. Rounding out the category of old favorites is the Monday evening conference reception and awards ceremony. All conference attendees are invited to attend the reception for an evening of food and fun and a chance to connect with friends and colleagues.
New activities at this year’s conference include a suite of short courses. The currently planned short course subjects are “VCSEL Technology and Applications,” taught by Fumio Koyama, from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, “Erbium Doped Fiber and Raman Amplifiers,” taught by Doug Butler of Corning, and “40 Gb/sec Technologies,” taught by Alan Willner of the University of Southern California. In addition to the new short courses, a new session and panel discussion on Tuesday night, hosted by Milton Chang, will describe the recent volatility in the telecommunications market and ways for members of the LEOS community to weather the storm. Last but not least, we welcome a new subcommittee to the LEOS Annual Meeting line-up, Microwave Photonics. This subject area was kicked-off last year with a special symposium, and this year will feature conference sessions including 15 invited and 9 contributed talks.
The LEOS Annual Meeting is special because over the years it has maintained its character and atmosphere. It has always been the purpose of the meeting to give LEOS members an opportunity to gather together to present and discuss their work. The informal atmosphere encourages introduction and interaction. It is a great place to meet old friends and colleagues and as well as to sample a wide range of research projects. We hope you will take the time to join us in San Diego this year, to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and, of course, to attend the conference. You can find more information regarding the Annual Meeting at the LEOS website, http://www.i-leos.org/. See you in San Diego.
Topic areas are as follows:
The Electro-Optic Sensors and Systems program includes papers by world class scientists and engineers on research, development and applications of optical, electro-optical, and optoelectronic systems and sensors for ultra fast systems, 3D display, 3D data processing, information systems, security systems, radar, and image and data sensing. There will be sessions which include papers describing systems and techniques for high speed information processing and communications systems, optical interconnects, light modulators, smart pixels for information processing, optical storage/memory for information systems, three dimensional imaging systems, three dimensional image recognition, adaptive optics, radar, fiber optics sensors, and imaging systems for intelligent transportation systems.
The Integrated Optics and Optoelectronics sub-committee has put together an excellent program covering a broad range of subjects in this field. The trend towards high speed optical communications is indicated by invited talks and contributed papers on modulators and wavelength converters. Invited talks on liquid crystal-based WDM devices and fiber-based acousto-optic devices indicate the opening up of new avenues of component and system research. An entire session is devoted to resonators, bringing new concepts to fruition.
Microwave and millimeter-wave techniques are necessary for wireless communication and remote sensing applications. With increasing bandwidth demands, photonics is expected to play an increasingly important role in the generation, transmission, detection, and processing of microwave and millimeter-wave signals. This year’s 9 invited and 14 contributed papers on microwave photonics are divided into sessions covering fiber-optic microwave communication links, microwave photonic subsystems, advanced modulators, high-power photodetectors, timing and frequency sources, and novel devices and techniques. Specific topics include wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) and code-division multiple access (CDMA) fiber-radio systems, low-voltage polymer and electroabsorption modulators, optical mixing techniques, and photonic analog-to-digital conversion.
Nonlinear Optics – LEOS 2001 has over 40 evenly distributed invited and contributed papers covering a wide range of topics to be presented in 10 sessions. There are two sessions on novel nonlinear optical processes where authors report on such issues as the fundamental quantum limits of nonlinear susceptibilities, electrogyration effect in chiral materials, and chaotic oscillations. Frequency conversion, femtosecond optical parametric oscillation and Terahertz generation and related phenomena take up another two sessions. Similarly, propagation effects such as soliton formation, chirping, phase modulation are discussed in two sessions, with an equal mix of contributed and invited papers. The rest of the papers are centered on nonlinear optical materials and photonic crystals, including liquid crystals, photorefractives, polymers and fibers.
This year’s sessions in Optical Communica-tions cover a broad range of topics from local to ultra long-haul communication systems. Among the highlights will be sessions on nonlinear-effects in optical communication systems, optical components, polarization mode dispersion, fiber and semiconductor amplifiers, and wavelength conversion. New topics include discussions on the progress towards multi-band terabit system and use of different modulation formats for enhancement of transmission quality. Twelve technical sessions running over all four days of the conference will feature sixteen invited talks by leading experts in the field.
The Optical Fiber and Planar Waveguide Technology Program will consist of five sessions covering a number of recent advances in fiber and planar technology. One session will focus on planar waveguide technology including phosphate glass waveguide lasers and filter components. In another session, air-silica microstructures and supercontinuum generation will be described. A third session will cover innovative techniques for the fabrication and application of fiber Bragg gratings. Modeling and characterization of fiber components as well as descriptions of multimode fiber network technology will be included.
This year’s symposium on optical interconnects and processing systems highlights a variety of new and exciting technologies and applications. The diverse set of invited and contributed papers is divided between technologies and applications for optical interconnects and processing. The diverse technologies include micro-electro-mechanical devices, photonic crystals, large scale vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), modulator, and photodiode arrays, micro-optics, and high performance parallel optical interconnect modules. Equally diverse applications implantation of micro-photodiode arrays in humans to reverse blindness, beam steering, telecommunications switching, gigabit networking, and latency reduction in optically interconnected multiprocessor systems.
Tremendous interest in high capacity transmission systems and optical networks has been fueled by unprecedent growth in data and internet traffic. Advances in network architectures and device technology enable the transition from point-to-point systems to optical networking. The Optical Networks and Systems committee is addressing this trend with sessions focusing on optical crossconnects, modeling of optical networks, and advanced devices and network concepts. In addition there is a special session on visionary/future optical networking services and technologies. These sessions are anchored by more than a dozen invited talks by noted experts in the field.
The Optoelectronic Materials and Processing session is comprised of eighteen contributed and seven invited papers that address exciting new directions in photonics. The explosive area of column III-nitride materials continues to expand with three sessions devoted to growth and processing of gallium nitride and nitride-As compounds. The crystal growth and characterization of quantum dots highlight another session. Recent advances in semiconductor epitaxy techniques will be presented. Novel materials and advanced processing methods for polymers and polymer/compound semiconductor hybrids are included.
Four Optoelectronic packaging, manufacturing and reliability sessions will feature exciting selected presentations from 12 speakers. A session dealing with design, reliability and manufacturing of parallel interconnect packages will set the stage for sessions dealing with progress towards packaging of WDM and low cost components, and their reliability. Presentations in these sessions treat a variety of packaging issues including: platform technology, assembly and automation. Two sessions covering the issues involved in manufacturing and reliability of optoelectronic packages conclude these sessions.
The five sessions of Photodetectors and Imaging will include eight invited and fourteen contributed papers with topics ranging from new device structures and material systems through novel approaches to photoreceiver design. Highlights of the sessions include: ultra-high speed detectors, detectors based on evanescently coupled passive and p-i-n waveguides, theoretical and experimental work on avalanche photodiodes, and photoreceivers employing both hybrid and monolithic integration. A joint session with the Microwave Photonics subcommittee will feature papers on high-speed, high-power photodetectors for RF photonics applications.
Semiconductor lasers continue to be heavily researched with important new developments being rapidly commercialized. New research results will be presented in the technology areas of GaAs-based 1.3 micron materials (GaInNAs, GaAsSb, and InGaAs quantum dots), low dimensional active materials, mid-infrared lasers, vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, and lasers for fiber optic communications.
This session will highlight new development in the generation of coherent soft x-ray, VUV and UV radiation. Advances in the generation of soft x-ray radiation by high order harmonics, soft x-ray lasers and femtosecond x-rays from a synchrotron will be reported. They will focus on the high brightness, energy scaling of the high order harmonic generation, tunability, and saturated amplification. In addition to the generation of soft x-ray radiation, their novel applications such as time-resolved probing of plasma created by femtosecond laser pulse and the study of structural dynamics in condensed matter will be discussed. Significant advances in the UV and VUV radiation will be reported as well. Development of high-power cw 252 nm coherent light sources for laser cooling of silicon atoms will be presented. High-power 157 nm discharge-pumped molecular fluorine lasers for microlithography of LSI will be reported as well.
This section will highlight emerging and novel technologies in solid state lasers. Sessions will cover recent developments in high power lasers, novel laser architectures, fiber laser, diode-pumping and non-linear conversion. These papers reflect the maturing states of the solid state laser field, with most papers representing the state-of-the-art in their technology area. Research results include development of UV solid state lasers, non-linear optics, novel fiber lasers and short pulse lasers.
This symposium consists of four sessions focused on some of the hot topics in medical optics. These topics deal with the use of optical coherence tomography for imaging in a manner that allows penetration of the surface of a material; optical and Raman spectroscopy; fluorescent imaging; novel biophotonics and cell growth sensors; biophotonic film assembly and gene modulation; photonic microinstrumentation and practical problems in dentistry. This series of talks will bring both experts and novices up to speed on this field which is rapidly growing.
There has been an explosive growth in Optical MEMS in the past year. Advances are made not only in research laboratories but also in practical applications and field trials. There are three sessions in this special symposium. The first session focuses on the telecommunication applications of MEMS, particularly in MEMS optical switches, including both 2D and 3D switches. We have three invited talks in this session. In addition to device and system concepts, practical issues such as reliability and Telcordia qualifications will also be addressed. The second session focuses on new Optical MEMS devices and novel applications, such as MEMS-based in situ scanning confocal microscopes. Tunable vertical cavity laser with direct modulation and fast wavelength locking will also be discussed. As Optical MEMS moves closer to commercialization and field deployment, packaging issues become more critical. The third Optical MEMS session discusses the challenges, critical issues, and solutions for packaging of Optical MEMS components. Novel applications enabled by Optical MEMS technologies in non-telecom applications will also be discussed.
Photonic crystal structures control light using physics that are quite different from that used to describe conventional waveguides based on total internal reflection. The early research in this field, carried out by small research groups at Bath University, MIT and UCLA concentrated on showing that photonic crystal structures could make useful optical components. In this special symposium we highlight innovative developments in photonic crystal research that demonstrate functionality that cannot be obtained in conventional optical components. These innovations represent disruptive advances in optical science and technology:
This symposium has similar numbers of invited and contributed talks, giving a strong tutorial ambience to the presentations:
It’s going to be a great show. Don’t miss it!
The Special Symposium on new transmission windows will feature presentations covering the different technological and system-related aspects of the subject. Invited presentations from distinguished experts in the field will address the enabling technologies for opening up new transmission windows to future high-capacity wavelength-division multiplexed transport systems, as well as the benefits and challenges associated with harnessing the yet-unexplored wavelength bands. The topics covered in this Special Symposium, that will run over two sessions, include various amplification technologies and corresponding pump sources, system impact, optical components, as well as line fibers.
This year’s Ultrafast Optics and Electronics portion of LEOS 2001 again highights exciting work in this rapidly moving field. There are five sessions with 14 contributed and 7 invited papers. Ultrafast technology bridges many important areas of optical science and this is reflected in the diverse nature of the sessions. The opening session on terahertz physics and techniques features three invited papers ranging from terahertz coherent control to the spectroscopy of ice and generation of high peak-power terahertz fields from diamond photoconductors. Sources and detectors of ultrafast optical waveforms constitute two more sessions which present recent advances in compact, tunable solid state picosecond and femtosecond lasers and new sensitive autocorralation and other measurement techniques. A highlight of this session will be an invited paper on nonlinear space-time processing of high speed optical signals. The recent rush to develop silicon or germanium optoelectronic devices based on quantum confinement has relied heavily on femtosecond spectroscopic techniques to elucidate the complex electronic structure of these materials. We have devoted a session to femtosecond interactions in quantum dots and wells with the lead-off invited paper being given by another distinguished leader in the field. Finally, recent exciting work allowing the linking of optical frequencies generated by femtosecond lasers to atomic microwave frequency standards has opened a whole new world of applications of ultrashort pulse lasers to metrology. We close our sessions with one invited talk from the developer of this new technique and two contributed talks on issues of amplitude and phase stability in modelocked lasers. The latter of these is becoming increasingly important for high precision measurements, high speed data and clock recovery, and optoelectronic generation of radiofrequency and microwave signals.