MICROPHOTONICS Current challenges and applications -- MICRO-OPTICAL RESONATORS FOR MICROLASERS AND INTEGRATED OPTOELECTRONICS -- ADVANCED MODELING OF HIGHCONTRAST PHOTONIC STRUCTURES -- SURFACE PLASMON RESONANCE (SPR) BIOSENSORS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS IN FOOD SAFETY AND SECURITY -- OPTICAL BIOSENSOR DEVICES AS EARLY DETECTORS OF BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS -- MODELING OF ONE-DIMENSIONAL NONLINEAR PERIODIC STRUCTURES BY DIRECT INTEGRATION OF MAXWELL'S EQUATIONS IN THE FREQUENCY DOMAIN -- PROPAGATION OF OPTICAL PULSES THROUGH NON LINEAR PLANAR WAVEGUIDES WITH JUNCTIONS -- EFFICIENT FREQUENCY-DOUBLING OF FEMTOSECOND PULSES IN WAVEGUIDE AND BULK NONLINEAR CRYSTALS Design, fabrication, theory and experiment -- H:LiNbO3 AND H:LiTaO3 PLANAR OPTICAL WAVEGUIDES: FORMATION AND CHARACTERIZATION -- HIGHLY EFFICIENT BROAD-BAND WAVEGUIDE GRATING COUPLER WITH A SUB-WAVELENGTH GRATING MIRROR -- INTEGRATED OPTICS DESIGN: SOFTWARE TOOLS AND DIVERSIFIED APPLICATIONS -- THREE-DIMENSIONAL INTEGRATED OPTICS: MMI COUPLERS FOR MULTILEVEL PHASARS.

This book is the result of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Frontiers in Planar Lightwave Circuit Technology, which took place in Ottawa, Canada from September 21-25, 2004. Many of the world’s leading experts in integrated photonic design, theory and experiment were invited to give lectures in their fields of expertise, and participate in discussions on current research and applications, as well as the new directions planar lightwave circuit technology is evolving towards. The sum of their contributions to this book constitutes an excellent record of many key issues and scientific problems in planar lightwave circuit research at the time of writing. In this volume the reader will find detailed overviews of experimental and theoretical work in high index contrast waveguide systems, micro-optical resonators, nonlinear optics, and advanced optical simulation methods, as well as articles describing emerging applications of integrated optics for medical and biological applications.