VERTICAL PHOTONICS - A NEW WAY TO INTEGRATE PHOTONIC DEVICES INTO OPTICAL FIBERS

Vertical photonics is the technique of direct integration of optical f unctional devices or their integration into optical fibers. Tn optical fiber systems, it is usually very difficult to match the modes of opt ical fibers to those of minute devices or to adjust their positions ac curately. To solve such connection problems, the expanded core fibers are used, the aperture of the device is enlarged, and the optical path is shortened: In this paper, the concept of vertical photonics is;dis cussed and the present status of the basic components (wavelength filt ers, polarizers, polarization splitters, etc.) and optical devices (is olators, optical switches, wavelength tunable filters, amplifiers, etc .) is reviewed.