ABSTRACT
In recent years a new direction has been developed in opto-electronics—integrated optics. The essence of the direction implies that an optical design is created not from a set of bulk optical elements but with the use of coupled planar waveguides, i.e., thin layers with increased refractive index at the surface of a material that provide light propagation in a layer at total internal reflection. The creation of a planar waveguide based on photochromic glass was first demonstrated by Petrovskii et al.257 Since then, ion-exchange waveguides have been created with the participation of the authors of the present book based on the main types of photochromic glasses produced in Russia. It has been shown that the photochromic properties of heterogeneous glasses are very sensitive to secondary heat treatment. In view of this, an important task was to define how the processes of coloration and fading of photochromic glasses in waveguide layers vary after ion-exchange treatment.
