A wide range of optical devices and subsystems have now been developed and demonstrated in an integrated format. The ability to define elements lithographically potentially reduces the costs associated with the assembly and alignment of bulk optical elements, and allows for enhanced functionality. However, a key optical device in which an integrated solution has proved elusive is the optical isolator and associated non-reciprocal devices such as circulators. In this talk I will review a number of technologies we have recently developed to incorporate the elements of an optical isolator in a III-V semiconductor chip. In particular, I will describe how we use the quasi-phase-matching technique to implement Faraday rotation with magneto-optic claddings, and how we fabricate the equivalent of a half-wave-plate in a waveguide.

Prof. David C. Hutchings currently holds the chair in Optical and Quantum Electronics at the University of Glasgow. He gained his PhD in Physics from Heriot-Watt University in 1988. He held postdoctoral research positions at Heriot-Watt University, then at CREOL, University of Central Florida. He was awarded a Royal Society of Edinburgh/Scottish Office Education Department Personal Research Fellowship in 1992, and an EPSRC Advanced Fellowship in 1995 for studies into ultrafast nonlinear optics in semiconductors, both of which were held at the University of Glasgow. He was subsequently appointed as a Reader in 2000, and to a Chair in 2004. He is currently the Head of the Engineering Graduate School, Academic Director of the EngD in System Level Integration programme and chair of the joint Graduate School of the Glasgow Research Partnership in Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Senior Member of the IEEE.