Most of the material in this volume is new. The first three chapters deal with three important fiber-optic components--fiber-based gratings, couplers, and interferometers--that serve as the building blocks of lightwave technology. In view of the enormous impact of rare-earth-doped fibers, amplifiers and lasers made by using such fibers are covered in Chapters 4 and 5. The last three chapters describe important applications of nonlinear fiber optics and are devoted to pulse-compression techniques, fiber-optic communication systems, and soliton-based transmission schemes. This volume should serve well the need of the scientific community interested in such fields as ultrafast phenomena, optical amplifiers and lasers, and optical communications. It will also be useful to graduate students as well as scientists and engineers involved in lightwave technology.
* Training resource for engineers involved with lightwave technology
* Covers the importance of nonlinear effects in designing WDM lightwave systems
* Up to date information for researchers

Govind P. Agrawal received his B.Sc. degree from the University of Lucknow in 1969 with honours. He was awarded a gold medal for achieving the top position in the university. Govind joined the Indian Institute of Technology at New Delhi in 1969 and received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in 1971 and 1974, respectively. After holding positions at the Ecole Polytechnique (France), the City University of New York, and the Laser company, Quantel, Orsay, France, Dr. Agrawal joined in 1981 the technical staff of the world-famous AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J., USA, where he worked on problems related to the development of semiconductor lasers and fiber-optic communication systems. He joined in 1989 the faculty of the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester where he is a Professor of Optics. His research interests focus on quantum electronics, nonlinear optics, and optical communications. In particular, he has contributed significantly to the fields of semiconductor lasers, nonlinear fiber optics, and optical communications. He is an author or co-author of more than 250 research papers, several book chapters and review articles, and four books. He has also edited the books "Contemporary Nonlinear Optics" (Academic Press, 1992) and "Semiconductor Lasers: Past, Present and Future" (AIP Press, 1995). The books authored by Dr. Agrawal have influenced an entire generation of scientists. Several of them have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Greek, and Russian.

Preface1. Fiber Gratings2. Fiber Couplers3. Fiber Interferometers4. Fiber Amplifiers5. Fiber Lasers6. Pulse Compression7. Fiber-Optic Communications8. Soliton Lightwave SystemsAppendix A. Bit-error rateAppendix B. AcronymsIndex