Integrated Optics: Basic Concepts and Techniques

The basic motivation for integrated optics is to do for optical circuits what integrated electronics has done for electrical circuits - replace a set of large individually-fabricated elements, that are individually-interconnected, with a single chip, in which all the miniaturized circuit elements and their interconnections are fabricated at the same time. A major concept of integrated optics is that in all the elements and interconnections the optical signals are confined in compact optical waveguides, and thus the field is often referred to as 'guided wave optics' and the devices as photonic circuits.