Mário Ferreira

tel: +351 23 437 0356
fax: +351 23 442 4965
E-mail: mfernando@ua.pt

Area of Expertise

Biography

Mário F. S. Ferreira was born in Ovar, Portugal. He graduated in Physics from the University of Porto, Portugal, and he received the Ph.D. degree in Physics in 1992 from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, where he is now a Professor at the Physics Department.

Between 1990 and 1991 he was at the University of Essex, UK, performing experimental work on external cavity semiconductor lasers and nonlinear optical fiber amplifiers. His research interests have been concerned with the modeling and characterization of multi-section semiconductor lasers for coherent systems, quantum well lasers, optical fiber amplifiers and lasers, soliton propagation, polarization and nonlinear effects in optical fibers. He is actually the leader of the Optics and Optoelectronics Group of the I3N – Institute of Nanostructures, Nanomodelling and Nanofabrication. He has written about 300 scientific journal and conference publications, a book with the title: “Optics and Photonics” (Lidel, 2003, in Portuguese) and another with the title: “Nonlinear Effects in Optical Fibers” (John Wiley & Sons, May 2011).

He is a member of the Optical Society of America (OSA), SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the European Optical Society (EOS), the European Physical Society (EPS) and the Portuguese Physical Society.

He served in various committees of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and of SPIE – The International Society for Optics and Photonics, having been also a member of the Telecommunications Committee of the “International Association of Science and Technology for Development” (IASTED). He served also in the technical committees of various international conferences.

He served as a reviewer of several scientific journals in the area of optics and optoelectronics. He is presently an Associate Editor of “Optical Fiber Technology- Materials, Devices, and Systems” (Elsevier) and a member of the Advisory Board of “Fiber and Integrated Optics” (Taylor & Francis), “Nonlinear Optics, Quantum Optics” (Old City Publishing, Inc.), “Research Letters in Optics” (Hindawi Publishing Corporation), and “International Journal of Optics” (Hindawi Publishing Corporation). He was the Guest Editor of a Special Issue of “Fiber and Integrated Optics”, published in 2005, dedicated exclusively to the fiber and integrated optics activity carried out in Portugal.

Lecture Title(s)

Nonlinear Effects in Optical Fibers 
Abstract: A brief introduction to nonlinear optics is provided by presenting basic models for the nonlinear susceptibility, showing how they are incorporated into the wave equation and how the wave equation is solved. Then, a few nonlinear interactions that involve non-resonant processes are described that are important in fiber transmission. These include self- and cross-phase modulation and four-wave mixing. The conditions for the formation and the main properties of optical solitons are also discussed. Next, a few nonlinear processes that are based on some form of material resonance are described. The major focus is on effects by which the fiber acts as a gain medium, namely stimulated Raman scattering and stimulated Brillouin scattering.

Optical Solitons in Fibers
Abstract: A brief history of attempts to use solitons for optical fiber communications and of technical developments toward making soliton transmission practical is reviewed. The main problems affecting long-distance soliton transmission, as well as techniques to solve them, are described. Recent developments concerning the use of dispersion management and some of the remarkable properties of dispersion-managed solitons are also discussed.

Optical Amplifiers
Abstract: The basic concepts of optical amplifiers, namely their gain, bandwidth, saturation, and noise properties, are introduced. Next, the main characteristics of some important optical amplifiers are described and compared. In particular, the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), the fiber Raman amplifier (FRA), the fiber Brillouin amplifier (FBA), and the fiber parametric amplifier (FPA) are considered.