Abstract
The interest in nonlinear waveguide devices, which has been growing steadily in recent years, stems from their potential use for ultrafast signal processing. The confinement of light in the small core area, and its diffractionless propagation over long distances increase the efficiency of the nonlinear interaction, and allow the use of relatively weak nonlinearities. These same advantages make the optical fiber one of the most useful nonlinear media, and indeed most of the proposed waveguide devices have been first realized in a fiber-optic form. While still in a less developed state compared with optical fibers, planar waveguide structures offer several possibilities that are difficult to realize in fibers. Planar structures are more suitable for implementing in different nonlinear materials systems, such as glasses, semiconductors and organic materials. Even materials which are difficult to process into waveguide structures can be considered, for example, as cladding layers. Most attractive, however, is the possibility to generate waveguide structures that have unique nonlinear characteristics, structures that would have been impossible in a fiber device.
© 1988 Optical Society of America
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