Optical Arbitrary Waveform Generation Using Chromatic Dispersion in Silica Fibers

This is dedicated to my family and everyone else who helped me along my way just so they could see me succeed. This is also dedicated to the innocent students and faculty who lost their lives at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007 doing what I am doing now: pursuing a higher education. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Ali Adibi for being my advisor, for always being accommodating and willing to provide me with any help and resource that I may need with my project or any other endeavors. I also appreciate the opportunity to be a part of his group and to do research in an area in which I am interested. I would especially like to thank Dr. Siva Yegnanarayanan for serving as a mentor and providing me with invaluable and necessary assistance during the course of my work and research. My research and thesis would not have been possible without him. I also am grateful for all of my group members for readily going out of their way if I asked them for help with anything. I would also like to thank Dr. Ralph and Dr. Chang for taking time out to serve on my thesis reading committee. Finally, I would like to thank my mother for all of the support that she has given me through the years. There are not enough words to express my gratitude. Without her guidance, I would not be where I am or who I am today. This thesis is mainly dedicated to you (and so that I can graduate). Thank you.