Optical Fiber Communication and Integrated Optics (Abstract)

In about ten years, efficient research and diligent technology have carried the field of optical communication to such a level that many systems operating with a wide range of requirements have been developed throughout the world. Thus, cables containing up to more than one hundred easy-to-splice multimode fibers can transmit thousands of telephone channels; injection lasers and light emitting diodes made of GaAlAs operating at about 0.85mu m can be directly modulated at rates as high as hundreds of MHZ; silicon PIN and the more sophisticated avalanche gain detectors, both with superb characteristics, are widely used.