ABSTRACT
Optical waveguides form the building blocks of integrated optics as well as fiber optics—the two fields that could together be broadly classified as guided wave optics. This chapter focuses on optical waveguides of integrated optical variety only. Several high-performance discrete functional devices—passive as well as active—are available based on semiconductor materials. The chapter discusses the basic physics underlying wave guidance in a slab/planar waveguide and the power carried by a mode. It draws on modeling wave guidance in three-dimensional-waveguide geometries, in which light is confined in two dimensions. The chapter provides a matrix technique to model wave guidance in multilayer waveguides based on silica on silicon material systems and discusses physics of electro-optic, semiconductor, and polymer waveguides. Fundamental to understanding wave guidance in optical waveguides is the concept of modes supported by the waveguide. Electro-optic materials like LiNbO3 find extensive application as optical waveguide materials for configuring devices like high-speed modulators in optical communication networks.
