Optical signal processing in photonic integrated circuits with mode locked lasers and optoelectronic cavities

For many applications, photonic integrated circuits offer important advantages over solid state optical components and discrete semiconductor devices. Photonic integrated circuits have lower power consumption, lower cost, and smaller size. These advantages are especially apparent for dense circuits with many components. The variety of components used in photonic integrated circuits has increased over the past 30 years thanks to advancing material growth and processing techniques. Still, there are many photonic integrated circuit components that have not been realized due to their complexity or certain difficulties in processing. Many optical signal processing techniques in particular require photonic elements that are not currently compatible with photonic integration.;In this dissertation we will discuss novel optoelectronic resonant cavities and mode locked lasers made using a variety of monolithic and hybrid integration techniques. The specific devices discussed are optoelectronic resonant cavities consisting of a traveling wave photodetector hybrid integrated with an electrical amplifier and filter, monolithic InP distributed Bragg reflector mirror mode locked lasers, and hybrid silicon evanescent mode locked lasers. In each case, these devices are or can be integrated with other components to form novel types of photonic integrated circuits. These novel devices are shown to be practical via experimental demonstrations in a variety of applications, with a consistent emphasis on optical clock recovery.