The great interest in photonic crystals and their applications in the last 15 years is being expressed in the publishing of a large number of monographs, collections, textbooks and tutorials, where existing knowledge concerning - eration principles of photonic crystal devices and microstructured ?bers, their mathematicaldescription,well-knownandnovelapplicationsofsuchtechno- gies in photonics and optical communications are presented. They challenges authors of new books to cover the gaps still existing in the literature and highlight and popularize of already known material in a new and original manner. Authorsofthisbookbelievethatthenextsteptowardswideapplicationof photoniccrystalsisthesolutionofmanypracticalproblemsofdesignandc- putation of the speci?c photonic crystal-based devices aimed at the speci?c technicalapplication.Inordertomakethisstep,itisnecessarytoincreasethe number of practitioners who can solve such problems independently. The aim of this book is to extend the group of researchers, developers and students, who could practically use the knowledge on the physics of photonic crystals together with the knowledge and skills of independent calculation of basic characteristics of photonic crystals and modeling of various elements of - tegrated circuits and optical communication systems created on the basis of photonic crystals. The book is intended for quali?ed readers, specialists in the ?eld of optics and photonics, students of higher courses, master degree students and PhD students. As an introduction to the snopest, the book contains the basics of wave optics and radiation propagation in simple guiding media such as planar waveguides and step-index ?bers.
