Glass in Integrated Photonics

Integrated photonics, which generically refers to the technology of combining multiple optical components on a chip-scale platform to form a functional photonic circuit, is often hailed as the optical equivalent of electronic integrated circuits, which holds the potential to revolutionize communications, computing, sensing, and imaging. Similar to microelectronic integrated circuits, which assimilate more than half the Mendeleev periodic table into the manufacturing process, integrated photonics necessarily involves many classes of materials to enable different photonic functionalities essential to photonic circuit operation. Glassy materials, with their exceptional optical and structural properties, constitute critical building blocks in state-of-the-art integrated photonic systems. The progress in these materials will help diversify the choices of materials for novel devices and components and will, therefore, push forward the development of integrated photonics with advanced functionalities. This chapter addresses the key facets of glassy materials in the context of integrated photonics, including material characteristics and processing technologies with specific application examples based on different glass composition families.