Reader: Prof. Andrey Fedyanin, Dr. Maxim Shcherbakov

In 21st century, electronics started to suffer from fundamental limitations imposed by charged information carriers. In photonics, light is used to transfer and process information. Currently, data transfer it is done at considerably higher rates in optical fibers than in the electric cables. The same principles apply for the on-chip photonic circuitry.

In this course, we will consider elements of contemporary integrated photonics: light sources (on-chip lasers and coupling of the free-space radiation); waveguides, splitters and mixers; interferometers and cavities; active elements (modulators, repeaters and amplifiers). We will talk about the means of increasing the data transfer bandwidth by implementing multiplexing methods. The final part of the course will give an outlook on the future integrated photonics devices: plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials, biosensors and lab-on-chip devices, as well as possible limitations and challenges posed in front of the global photonics community.