Polymer-Based Optical Waveguides

Abstract

Polymer optical waveguides would play a key role in broadband communications, such as optical networking, metropolitan access communications, and computing systems, due mainly to their easier processibility and integration over inorganic counterparts. The combined advantages also make them an ideal integration platform where foreign material systems, such as yttrium iron garnet and lithium niobate, as well as semiconductor devices such as lasers, detectors, amplifiers, and logic circuits can be inserted into an etched groove in a planar lightwave circuit to enable full amplifier modules or optical add/drop multiplexers on a single substrate. Moreover, the combination of flexibility and toughness in optical polymers makes it suitable for vertical integration to realize 3D and even all-polymer integrated optics. This chapter would provide a brief review about polymer-based optical waveguides, including suitable polymer waveguide systems, their processing and fabrication techniques, and the integrated optical waveguide components and circuits derived from these materials.