Benjamin Klein received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1994 and 1995, respectively, and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2000. From 2000-2003, Dr. Klein served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, carrying out theoretical analysis and computer simulations of next-generation semiconductor photonic devices. In August 2003 Dr. Klein joined the faculty of Georgia Tech Savannah as an Assistant Professor.
Dr. Klein studies the physics and design of semiconductor lasers, light-emitting diodes, optical amplifiers, and photodetectors, which are commonly used for telecommunications applications. Using an array of simulation tools, the physics of these devices are elucidated to help designers obtain optimum device performance. Dr. Klein’s group is working to extend the comprehensive laser simulator MINILASE to handle a wide array of next-generation devices, including InGaN-based blue-green lasers, single quantum dot lasers, photonic crystal confined lasers, antiguided laser arrays, and surface plasmon guided lasers. The highly regarded MINILASE program, renamed VLS (Visible Laser Simulator), self-consistently solves the electrical and thermal transport equations associated with semiconductor lasers. It has been integrated with an 8-band k.p solver for confined states in quantum wells, as well as various optical solvers appropriate to different types of optical confinement, including Green’s function, finite difference, finite element, effective index, transfer matrix, and quasi-analytic type solvers. The result is a predictive design tool, which has been used to reveal surprising and important results for current and next-generation laser designs. Dr. Klein is a Member of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society.
