Integrated optics and new wave phenomena in optical waveguides

TLDR

Integrated optics aims to use thin‑film technology to create optical devices and circuits and to densely integrate many such devices on a small substrate, mirroring microelectronic integrated circuits. The paper reviews current integrated optics and investigates new wave phenomena in optical circuits. The review covers light‑wave couplers, m‑line spectroscopy, thin‑film refraction and reflection, normal modes of uniform, graded, and metal‑clad waveguides, tapered‑film optics, corrugated‑waveguide theory, thin‑film device physics, and circuit‑formation methods. The review reports that miniature optical waveguides—such as lasers, modulators, switches, detectors, prisms, lenses, and polarizers—exhibit efficiencies surpassing bulk counterparts, and that simple integrated optical circuits have been built, with GaAs‑related compounds enabling rapid monolithic development.

Abstract

Research in integrated optics has two goals: One is to apply thin-film technology to the formation of optical devices and circuits. The other is the integration of a large number of optical devices on a small substrate, so forming an optical circuit reminiscent of the integrated circuit in microelectronics. The result is a new breed of optical devices in the form of miniature optical waveguides. They include lasers, modulators, switches, detectors, prisms, lenses, and polarizers, and many of them have efficiencies better than their bulk counterparts. Simple integrated optical circuits have also been constructed, and rapidly advancing semiconductor technology indicates that monolithic integrated optical circuits can readily be developed using GaAs-related compounds. In this paper, we review the state-of-the-art of integrated optics and explore new wave phenomena in optical circuits. The specific topics to be discussed are: light-wave couplers and $m$-line spectroscopy, refraction and reflection of light in thin films, normal modes of the uniform, the graded and the metal-clad waveguides, optics in tapered films, theory of corrugated waveguides, and more importantly, physics of various thin-film optical devices and the method of the circuit formation.