ECE527F: Photonic Devices (2013)
Course website: https://portal.utoronto.ca/
Overview
This course provides the fundamentals to understand, analyze, and design micro-scale photonic
devices. We will begin with the wave description of light and study optical propagation in homogeneous and stratified media. Then we will study optical waveguides, which are essential to
the confinement and routing of light. We will learn how to analyze and design optical reflectors,
frequency filters, waveguide couplers, and resonators. We will finish with a brief description of
several active devices essential to optical transmitters – the modulator and laser.
Lectures and Tutorials
Monday, 10:00-11:00 am, BA2135
Wednesday, 2:00-3:00 pm, RS310
Thursday, 1:00-2:00 pm, RS310
Tutorial: Friday, 1:00-3:00 pm, BA3116 (starts on Sep. 13, 2013)
Instructor
Prof. Joyce Poon, joyce.poon@utoronto.ca
Office Hours: by appointment, GB444A
Teaching Assistant
Dongpeng Kang, dongpeng.kang@mail.utoronto.ca
Office Hours: by appointment, GB403
The instructor and TA will try to respond to emails within 48 hours, but cannot guarantee a response
within the 24 hours before an assignment is due.
Grading
Assignments (5): 25% (best 4 out of 5)
Tests (2): 30%
Final exam: 45% (Type: X, Calculator: Type 2)
Assignments
Problem sets will be assigned regularly. Although discussions with other students are permitted,
you must complete the assignments independently. Copying, when detected, will result in a grade
of zero for the assignment. Plagiarism is not tolerated.
Late Policy
Late assignments will be penalized at 20% per day.
Course Outline
Time line is approximate.
1. Introduction (0.5 week)
• Overview of photonic integrated circuits – materials, devices
2. Basic Electromagnetics (1.5 weeks; Ch. 1)
• Maxwell’s equations and boundary conditions
• Wave equation
• Polarization
3. Wave propagation (2.5 weeks; Ch. 4, 12)
•
•
•
•
Refraction, reflection, transmission
Fabry-Perot etalons/resonators
Anti-reflection coatings
Multi-layer periodic media, Bloch waves
4. Waveguides (4 weeks; Ch. 3, 12, 13)
• Modes, waveguides, dispersion
• Coupled-mode theory
• Directional couplers, grating reflectors
5. Optical modulators (1.5 weeks; Ch. 1, 9)
•
•
•
•
Light in anisotropic medium and birefringence
Electro-optic e↵ect
Interferometers
Electroabsorption
6. Optical amplifiers and lasers (2.5 weeks; Ch. 5, 6, 15, 16, 17)
• Optical gain in materials
• Absorption, spontaneous emission, stimulated emission
• Basic operation of optical amplifiers and lasers
7. Bonus topics (interspersed throughout)
• High-index contrast (e.g. silicon) photonics
• Nanoscale optics and surface plasmons
• Current research and industry trends
Textbooks
A. Yariv and P. Yeh. Photonics: Optical Electronics in Modern Communications, 6th ed, Oxford.
Supplementary References:
Yeh. Optical Waves in Layered Media, Wiley.
Saleh and Teich. Fundamentals of Photonics, Wiley, 2007.
Coldren, Corzine, and Masanovic. Diode Lasers and Photonic Integrated Circuits, 2nd ed., Wiley,
2012. http://go.utlib.ca/cat/8687204
September 2013
Sunday
1
Monday
2
Tuesday
3
Wednesday
4
Thursday
5
November 2013
6
Friday
Saturday
7
13
14
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
1
Friday
Saturday
2
7
8
9
First
lecture
8
9
10
11
12
Electromagnetics
15
16
3
4
23
17
18
19
20
Optical
modulator
21
10
24
25
11
26
27
28
17
18
30
Monday
13
14
15
16
19
20
21
22
23
Optical
amplifiers
and lasers
24
25
October 2013
Sunday
12
PS4 due
PS1 due
29
6
Tutorial
starts
Waves
22
5
Tuesday
1
Wednesday
2
Thursday
3
Test 2
26
7
28
29
30
December 2013
Friday
4
Saturday
5
Sunday
1
Monday
2
Tuesday
3
Wednesday
4
Thursday
5
6
Friday
Saturday
7
Final
lecture
PS5 due
6
27
8
9
10
11
12
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
26
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Waveguides
PS2 due
13
14
Thanksgiving
holiday
Test 1
20
21
22
23
24
27
28
29
30
31
PS3 due
25