Programmable Integrated Photonics

This book provides the first comprehensive, up-to-date and self-contained introduction to the emergent field of Programmable Integrated Photonics (PIP). It covers both theoretical and practical aspects, ranging from basic technologies and the building of photonic component blocks, to design alternatives and principles of complex programmable photonics circuits, their limiting factors, techniques for characterization and performance monitoring/control, and their salient applications both in the classical as well as in the quantum information fields. The book concentrates and focuses mainly on the distinctive features of programmable photonics, as compared to more traditional ASPIC approaches.After some years during which the Application Specific Photonic Integrated Circuit (ASPIC) paradigm completely dominated the field of integrated optics, there has been an increasing interest in PIP. The rising interest in PIP is justified by the surge in a number of emerging applications that call for true flexibility and reconfigurability, as well as low-cost, compact, and low-power consuming devices.