A review of ultrafast optics and optoelectronics

The speed of optoelectronic devices is normally limited by the components used on the electronic side of the device. The direct generation of short light pulses from short current pulses, for example, is limited by the speed of an electronic pulse generator or the response time of a laser diode. These electronic bandwidth limitations can be overcome by switching to indirect schemes. These schemes use optical means, whenever bandwidth is an issue. This is combined with much slower optoelectronic technology, bringing together the inherent speed of all-optical approaches and the virtues of standard optoelectronics. Apart from the generation of short pulses, we will also address their detection and characterization, their modulation, and transmission effects. These methods carry the functionality of optoelectronics from a temporal resolution of a few picoseconds well into the femtosecond range.