The twentieth century has witnessed phenomenal growth in silicon-based semiconductor technology. This revolution, however, will be dwarfed by photonics technology in the twenty-first century. In this respect, erbium (a rare-earth element of the lanthanide series ), will be to photonics technology what silicon is to semiconductor technology. In this book, spotlight shines on the novel usage of erbium in amplifying optical signals V, a much desired phenomenon implemented in optical communication systems. Due to various loss mechanisms, there is a gradual reduction in the power of light as it propagates through a communication channel, and to recover that, amplification of light becomes vital. Further, this remains very important in order for the information carried by the light to be discernible at the receiving end as there exists a minimum threshold power which the light must always possess.

The book is pivoted to the usage of the 2-D Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) technique for image compression, wherein the readers will come across the development of a new and faster 2-D DCT algorithm, and its hardware implementation. It describes the evolution of VHDL codes by implementing DSP Design Architect tools from Mentor Graphics in respect of hardware chip realization. However, efforts are also made simultaneously towards the development of the relevant algorithm in MATLAB platform in order to verify the functionality of the developed VHDL codes. The synthesis of VHDL codes using Quartus Integrated Synthesis (QIS) tools was performed by implementing Altera's library (90-nm) to make the synthesized design downloaded to a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board. The synthesis software was also used to optimize the performance of the design related features such as chip area, delay, clock frequency and power dissipation. The book presents the development of fast processor in a lucid fashion so that the readers would grasp the theme presented, and be motivated to actually realize the developed processor as well as implement the ideas in their own designs.

This book maps out the frontiers of optical technology in two major subdisciplines: optical materials and optical devices. The optical materials and material architectures covered include nanostructured silicon, chiral sculptured thin films, magnetic photonic crystals, and switchable materials for efficient lighting and decorative optics. The optical devices addressed include silicon waveguides for integrated circuitry, high-speed electro-optic modulators, laser diodes coupled with fibre-tip lenses, and optical sensors. Reading the ten chapters, either altogether or piecemeal, the reader will receive a virtually up-to-date review of the state of the art.