An Optoelectronics Laboratory for Undergraduates

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This project introduces students to optoelectronics, a key technology for the future. The new equipment is enhancing an optoelectronics laboratory, allowing students to gain hands-on experience with modern equipment in this interdisciplinary field. Learning to integrate knowledge from a variety of fields is essential for effective participation in the present and future engineering community. The equipment is being incorporated into a junior-level Electronics class for Electrical Engineers, an elective Electrical Engineering course, Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, and Exploring Engineering for first-year engineering and interested non-engineering-students. The equipment contributes a vital laboratory component to enhance student learning. Students perform experiments with optoelectronic materials, devices, and systems. Having students create their own optical measurement setups using available components provides them with valuable experience in developing tools to solve problems. Students explore the effects of different materials and temperature on device performance. The Exploring Engineering students compare laser diodes and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in the visible and infrared regimes. The Electronics students perform a more detailed characterization of these devices. The students in the elective perform several experiments including materials characterization and characterization of optical sources (gas lasers, laser diodes, and LEDs), detectors, and modulators. A system-level experiment culminates the laboratory experience. Since fiber optic communication is one of the most important applications of optoelectronics, system laboratories involve fiber optics. Coupling an optoelectronic device into an optical fiber introduces the students to the complexity of integrating the devices they have studied into actual systems. State-of-the-art data acquisition software, LabView, is being integrated into the experiments.