Over the past two decades, optical amplifiers have become of key importance in modern communications. In addition to this, the technology has applications in cutting-edge research such as biophotonics and lab-on-a-chip devices. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the fundamental concepts, theory and analytical techniques behind the modern optical amplifier technology. The book covers all major optical amplification schemes in conventional materials, including the Raman and parametric gain processes. The final chapter is devoted to optical gain in metamaterials, a topic that has been attracting considerable attention in recent years. The authors emphasize analytical insights to give a deeper, more intuitive understanding of various amplification schemes. The book assumes background knowledge of electrical engineering or applied physics, including exposure to electrodynamics and wave motion, and is ideal for graduate students and researchers in physics, optics, bio-optics and communications.

Malin Premaratne is Research Director and Associate Professor in the Advanced Computing and Simulation Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Australia. He guides the research program in theory, modeling and simulation of light propagation in guided and scattering media. Govind P. Agrawal is Professor of Optics and Physics in the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, USA. His current research interests include optical communications, nonlinear optics and laser physics.