Bücher der Reihe Springer Series in Photonics

Explains in detail the basics, theory, design, fabrication, and operation of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. All the chapters are written by pioneers and key experts who have exclusive access to the most up-to-date innovations in the respective fields.

Martin Green, one of the world's foremost photovoltaic researchers, argues in this book that "second generation" photovoltaics will eventually reach its own material cost constraints, engendering a "third generation" of high performance thin-films.

The development of clean energy resources as alternatives to oiI has become one of the most important challenges for modern science and technology. The obvious motivation for these efforts is to reduce the air polIution resulting from the mass consumption of fossil fuels and to protect the ecological cycles of the biosystems on Earth. Analyses of future energy usage envision that the energy structure in the 21st century will be characterized as a "Best Mix Age" involving different renewable energy forms. Among the wide variety of renewable energy projects in progress, photo­ voltaics is the most promising as a future energy technology. It is pollution­ free and abundantly available everywhere in the world, even in space, and can also operate with diffuse light. However, a major barrier impeding the devel­ opment of large-scale bulk power applications of photovoltaic systems is the high price of solar cell modules. Therefore, reduction of the costs of solar celIs is of prime importance. To achieve this objective, tremendous R&D efforts have been made over the past two decades in a wide variety of technical fields ranging from solar-cell materials, cell structure, and mass production pro­ cesses to the photovoltaic systems themselves. As the result, about an order of magnitude cost reduction has been achieved in the past 10 years.

This book deals with glass for high-tech applications in optoelectronic devices, focusing on new topics of fundamental importance in the application of active glasses in photonic devices. Topics include manufacturing of the glass, analysis of induced structures in glasses, and some functional devices using active glasses.

Nonlinearities and optics, optoelectronics and fiber communications are discussed systematically in this book. It will be of interest to graduate students as well as researchers and engineers in the fields of nonlinear optics and optical communications.

Explains in detail the basics, theory, design, fabrication, and operation of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. All the chapters are written by pioneers and key experts who have exclusive access to the most up-to-date innovations in the respective fields.

The first comprehensive book on thin-film solar cells, potentially a key technology for solving the energy production problem in the 21st century in an environmentally friendly way. It covers a wide range of scientific and technological aspects of thin film semiconductors - deposition technologies, growth mechanisms and the basic properties of amorphous and nano-crystalline silicon - as well as the optimum design theory and device physics of high-efficiency solar cells, especially of single-junction and multi-junction solar cells. The development of large-area solar cell modules using single and multi-junction solar cells is also considered. Examples of recent photovoltaic systems are presented and analysed.

Recent rapid advances in femtosecond technology have had a great impact on their industrial applications such as: ultrafast optoelectronic devices and optical telecommunication systems, ultrashort-pulse lasers and measurement systems, and the development of novel materials for ultrafast functions.

Authored by internationally recognized experts on optical solitons, this book addresses the forefront of technology in the important field of optical communications. It deals with topics from the motion of light waves in optical fibres to the evolution of light wavepackets, and other applications.

Many new materials and structures are being developed that will impact new optical devices with applications in optical communications and optical data processing.

Supplies readers with the basic knowledge and guidance for the application of new lasers and light-emitting devices. This title discusses the generation of sub-shot-noise light in macroscopic pn junction light emitting devices.

This is due to the fact that major developments in the area of semiconductors, such as hetero structures based on III-V compounds or mesoscopic structures at the nanometer scale such as quantum weHs, quantum wires and quantum dots, have found robust applications in the generation, modulation, detection and processing of light.

Many new materials and structures are being developed that will impact new optical devices with applications in optical communications and optical data processing.

Optoelectronic devices and fibre optics are the basis of cutting-edge communication systems. This monograph deals with the various components of these systems, including lasers, amplifiers, modulators, converters, filters, sensors, and more.

The most comprehensive book on waveguide nonlinear optic devices, this volume presents a systematic description of the NLO field, with an emphasis on devices that use ferroelectric waveguides. It ranges from an introduction to the concepts of waveguides to the most recent experimental results.