Ph.D., Stanford University, 1972
Larry A. Coldren is the Fred Kavli Professor of Optoelectronics and Sensors at the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1972. After 13 years in the research area at Bell Laboratories, he joined UC-Santa Barbara in 1984 where he now holds appointments in Materials and Electrical & Computer Engineering, and is Director of the Optoelectronics Technology Center. In 1990 he co-founded Optical Concepts, later acquired as Gore Photonics, to develop novel VCSEL technology; and in 1998 he co-founded Agility Communications, later acquired by JDSU, to develop widely-tunable integrated transmitters.
At Bell Labs Coldren initially worked on waveguided surface-acoustic-wave signal processing devices and coupled-resonator filters. He later developed tunable coupled-cavity lasers using novel reactive-ion etching (RIE) technology that he created for the then new InP-based materials. At UCSB he continued work on multiple-section tunable lasers, in 1988 inventing the widely-tunable multi-element mirror concept, which is now used in some JDSU products. During the late eighties he also developed efficient vertical-cavity multiple-quantum-well modulators, which led to novel vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) designs that provided unparalleled levels of performance. Prof. Coldren continues to be active in developing new photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and VCSEL technology, including the underlying materials growth and fabrication techniques. In recent years, for example, he has been involved in the creation of efficient all-epitaxial InP-based and high-modulation speed GaAs-based VCSELs as well as a variety of InP-based PICs incorporating numerous optical elements for widely-tunable integrated transmitters, receivers, and wavelength converters operating up to 40 Gb/s.
Professor Coldren has authored or co-authored over 1000 journal and conference papers, 7 book chapters, 1 textbook, and has been issued 65 patents. He has presented dozens of invited and plenary talks at major conferences, he is a Fellow of the IEEE, OSA, and IEE, the recipient of the 2004 John Tyndall and 2009 Aron Kressel Awards, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
