ABSTRACT
Through molecular design and chemical synthesis, organic polymer materials can have better optical properties than conventional inorganic materials. Polymers also allow more choices of device fabrication techniques and devices impossible to fabricate in other materials can be achieved with polymers. For these reasons optical polymers have many applications in photonic devices to transmit and process information. In this chapter we will learn the basic principles of optical waveguides and optical fibers, understand the requirements on the material, and how organic polymer materials meet these requirements. Important photonic devices made with polymer materials such as plastic optical fiber, optical modulators, switches and wavelength filters for fiber optic communications are discussed.
