The optical device course examines the optoelectronic devices and their properties that facilitate optical communications. Topics include identification of optical components in photonic systems and subsystems, operation principles of lasers and LED, modulation dynamics, single frequency lasers, fundamental AM and FM noise properties, laser line-width requirements, tunable semiconductor lasers, quantum well lasers, electro-optic modulators and switches, optical filters, couplers, isolators, detectors, integrated optoelectronic circuits, semiconductor optical amplifiers, Erbium optical fiber amplifiers, low coherence sources diodes, and tunable optical filters.