Optical Waveguides

The dielectric-sheet (thin-film) and rod waveguides that we will study in this book have been the subjects of a truly massive literature. They are members of a broad class of structures called surface waveguides or surface wave antennas. These, in turn, form a subset of a broader class of structures, traveling wave antennas. Serious engineering studies of many of these began shortly before World War II, just after high-frequency microwave sources were developed. New work is still being produced today, at both microwave and optical frequencies. While it would not be practical for us to attempt to chart a course through all of the microwave literature, we would nevertheless like to bring to the reader’s attention several of the excellent texts and comprehensive review papers that are available, particularly those dealing with the theoretical analyses of surface waveguides. Because these analyses are so germane to the many current investigations of optical waveguides, they may well be regarded as part of the optical, as well as the microwave, literature. Therefore, in our attempt to sketch the history of optical waveguides, we will begin with the earliest studies of dielectric guides, defer to texts and review papers for the history and content of the most pertinent work from the microwave literature, and then sketch the optical waveguide work of this and the preceding decade.