Dr. Venkat Venkatramanan
Head, Scientific Operations
Institute of Optical Sciences
University of Toronto

Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 6:30 p.m.

Optical amplifiers are important elements of modern high speed WDM networks. The most widely used EDFA works only at 1550 nm window. It has unequal gain across its operating waveband which produces gain issues especially with cascaded EDFAs. Amplifier Spontaneous Noise issue is another issue. Raman amplifiers on the other hand can work at any wavelength, however widespread deployment is delayed by the difficulty is achieving pumping conditions. Optical parametric amplifiers offer the lowest noise figure reported. Raman and parametric amplifiers are expected to play major role in future systems.   

Dr. Venkat Venkatramanan is the Head of Scientific Operations at the Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto. His research interests include Linear and nonlinear optics of surfaces, interfaces and bulk, Physical processes at surfaces, Magneto optic effect; Laser induced damage in nonlinear optical materials, Optical Modeling, Laser Safety. He has PhD (Physics) from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He was a Senior Staff Scientist, 2001-2004, Photonics Research Ontario, Canada and STA Fellow during 1999-2001 at RIKEN, the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Japan. He was a Scientific Officer at the Centre for Advanced Technology, (Dept. of Atomic Energy), Indore, India and Leverhulme Visiting Fellow, 1995-1996, to the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.