Integrated optical components based on ion-exchanged glass waveguides are finding applications in real systems. Recently, significant progress has occurred in the understanding of the ion-exchange process. It is now possible to model the thermal as well as electric field enhanced diffusion with reasonable accuracy and to design ion- exchanged waveguides and devices with prespecified characteristics. This paper describes the theory of the ion-exchange process and explains the diffusion profile for Ag+-Na+ and K+-Na+ cation pairs used in BK7 glass for planar and 2-D (channel) waveguide fabrication. Following this, we present the latest results in modeling and fabrication of several devices based on single-mode channel waveguides. These include couplers, power dividers, MUX/DEMUX, and polarization splitters for applications in optical communications. Finally, we point out the latest trends and novel emerging applications of ion-exchanged waveguides, such as all optical switching, waveguide lasers and amplifiers, and integration of passive waveguides on glass with optoelectronic devices.
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