Advanced Materials For Integrated Optical Waveguides

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to integrated optical waveguides for information technology and data communications. Integrated coverage ranges from advanced materials, fabrication, and characterization techniques to guidelines for design and simulation. A concluding chapter offers perspectives on likely future trends and challenges. The dramatic scaling down of feature sizes has driven exponential improvements in semiconductor productivity and performance in the past several decades. However, with the potential of gigascale integration, size reduction is approaching a physical limitation due to the negative impact on resistance and inductance of metal interconnects with current copper-trace based technology. Integrated optics provides a potentially lower-cost, higher performance alternative to electronics in optical communication systems. Optical interconnects, in which light can be generated, guided, modulated, amplified, and detected, can provide greater bandwidth, lower power consumption, decreased interconnect delays, resistance to electromagnetic interference, and reduced crosstalk when integrated into standard electronic circuits. Integrated waveguide optics represents a truly multidisciplinary field of science and engineering, with continued growth requiring new developments in modeling, further advances in materials science, and innovations in integration platforms. In addition, the processing and fabrication of these new devices must be optimized in conjunction with the development of accurate and precise characterization and testing methods. Students and professionals in materials science and engineering will find Advanced Materials for Integrated Optical Waveguides to be an invaluable reference for meeting these research and development goals.

Although the theory and principles of optical waveguides have been established for more than a century, the technologies have only been realized in recent decades. Optical Waveguides: From Theory to Applied Technologies combines the most relevant aspects of waveguide theory with the study of current detailed waveguiding technologies, in particular, photonic devices, telecommunication applications, and biomedical optics. With self-contained chapters written by well-known specialists, the book features both fundamentals and applications. The first three chapters examine the theoretical foundations and bases of planar optical waveguides as well as critical optical properties such as birefringence and nonlinear optical phenomena. The next several chapters focus on contemporary waveguiding technologies that include photonic devices and telecommunications. The book concludes with discussions on additional technological applications, including biomedical optical waveguides and the potential of neutron waveguides. As optical waveguides play an increasing part in modern technology, photonics will become to the 21st century what electronics were to the 20th century. Offering both novel insights for experienced professionals and introductory material for novices, this book facilitates a better understanding of the new information era—the photonics century.

This volume contains the proceedings of a two-week NATO A.S.I. on Integrated Optics: Physics and Applications, held from August 17 to August 30, 1981 in Erice, Italy. This is the 8th annual Course of the "International School of Quantum Electronics" presented under the auspices of the "E. Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture. The subject was chosen in order to satisfy the demand for a course on integrated optics which is relevant to the expanding use of fiber optics for communication and signal processing. Integrated Optics, encompassing all of the optical waveguide circuits which are the optical analog of integrated circuits, is finding its way into a variety of applications involving communi cations, high speed signal-processing, and sensors of many kinds. However, because the technology is still changing very rapidly, the development of these exciting applications relies heavily upon the physics of the integrated optical circuits themselves and the pro cessing techniques used to fabricate them. This NATO A.S.I. provided not only a thorough tutorial treatment of the field, but also through panel discussions and additional lectures treated topics at the forefront of present work. Therefore the character of the Course was a blend of current research and tutorial reviews. "The Physics and Applications of Integrated Optics" could hardly be a more appropriate title to be chosen for this volume. Many of the worlds' acknowledged leaders in the field have been brought together to review and speculate on the accomplishments of integrated optics.

All integrated optical components and devices make use of "waveguides", where light is confined by total internal reflection. The elements in such "photonic chip" are interconnected through waveguides, and also the integrated optics components themselves are fabricated using waveguide configuration, such as couplers, switches, modulators, multiplexors, amplifiers and lasers, etc. These components are integrated in a single substrate, thus resulting in a compact and robust photonic device, which can be optically connected through optical fibres. With and increase in the number of integrated optical components and devices emerging from the research laboratories to the market place an up-to-date book is essential in collecting, summarizing and presenting the new developed photonic devices. This includes fundamental aspects, technical aspects (such as fabrication techniques and materials) and characterisation and performance. This is an advanced text aimed at specialists in the field of photonics, but who may be new to the field of integrated photonics. The fundamental aspects have been carefully considered, and all the topics covered by the book start at a medium level, making it highly relevant for undergraduate and post-graduate students following this discipline.

Our intent in producing this book was to provide a text that would be comprehensive enough for an introductory course in integrated optics, yet concise enough in its mathematical derivations to be easily readable by a practicing engineer who desires an overview of the field. The response to the first edition has indeed been gratifying; unusually strong demand has caused it to be sold out during the initial year of publication, thus providing us with an early opportunity to produce this updated and improved second edition. This development is fortunate, because integrated optics is a very rapidly progressing field, with significant new research being regularly reported. Hence, a new chapter (Chap. 17) has been added to review recent progress and to provide numerous additional references to the relevant technical literature. Also, thirty-five new problems for practice have been included to supplement those at the ends of chapters in the first edition. Chapters I through 16 are essentially unchanged, except for brief updating revisions and corrections of typographical errors. Because of the time limitations imposed by the need to provide an uninterrupted supply of this book to those using it as a course text, it has been possible to include new references and to briefly describe recent developments only in Chapter 17. However, we hope to provide details of this continuing progress in a future edition.

A classroom-tested introduction to integrated and fiber optics This text offers an in-depth treatment of integrated and fiber optics, providing graduate students, engineers, and scientists with a solid foundation of the principles, capabilities, uses, and limitations of guided-wave optic devices and systems. In addition to the transmission properties of dielectric waveguides and optical fibers, this book covers the principles of directional couplers, guided-wave gratings, arrayed-waveguide gratings, and fiber optic polarization components. The material is fully classroom-tested and carefully structured to help readers grasp concepts quickly and apply their knowledge to solving problems. Following an overview, including important nomenclature and notations, the text investigates three major topics: Integrated optics Fiber optics Pulse evolution and broadening in optical waveguides Each chapter starts with basic principles and gradually builds to more advanced concepts and applications. Compelling reasons for including each topic are given, detailed explanations of each concept are provided, and steps for each derivation are carefully set forth. Readers learn how to solve complex problems using physical concepts and simplified mathematics. Illustrations throughout the text aid in understanding key concepts, while problems at the end of each chapter test the readers' grasp of the material. The author has designed the text for upper-level undergraduates, graduate students in physics and electrical and computer engineering, and scientists. Each chapter is self-contained, enabling instructors to choose a subset of topics to match their particular course needs. Researchers and practitioners can also use the text as a self-study guide to gain a better understanding of photonic and fiber optic devices and systems.

This book provides a methodological understanding of the theoretical and technical limitations to the longevity of Moore’s law. The book presents research on factors that have significant impact on the future of Moore’s law and those factors believed to sustain the trend of the last five decades. Research findings show that boundaries of Moore’s law primarily include physical restrictions of scaling electronic components to levels beyond that of ordinary manufacturing principles and approaching the bounds of physics. The research presented in this book provides essential background and knowledge to grasp the following principles: Traditional and modern photolithography, the primary limiting factor of Moore’s law Innovations in semiconductor manufacturing that makes current generation CMOS processing possible Multi-disciplinary technologies that could drive Moore's law forward significantly Design principles for microelectronic circuits and components that take advantage of technology miniaturization The semiconductor industry economic market trends and technical driving factors The complexity and cost associated with technology scaling have compelled researchers in the disciplines of engineering and physics to optimize previous generation nodes to improve system-on-chip performance. This is especially relevant to participate in the increased attractiveness of the Internet of Things (IoT). This book additionally provides scholarly and practical examples of principles in microelectronic circuit design and layout to mitigate technology limits of previous generation nodes. Readers are encouraged to intellectually apply the knowledge derived from this book to further research and innovation in prolonging Moore’s law and associated principles.