Integrated Photonics

Integrated Photonics deals with the development of miniaturized optical devices. Light-guiding micro- and nanostructures are designed and manufactured with modern production methods, often borrowed from the field of microelectronics. Applications are mainly foreseen for telecommunication devices, medicine, biology, and for building sensors. Research in the field of integraded photonics requires close colaboration of scientists which are proficient in semiconductor electronics and optical measurement techniques. The picture shows a two-dimensional photonic crystal. In such a device, analogies of electronic properties of crystal lattices are applied to the optical properties of optical devies with regular structures. This allows for particular control of the guiding of light. In this example, a so-called add-drop-multiplexer has been built.