Book excerpt: Theory of Dialectric Optical Waveguides, Second Edition focuses on the practical usage of optical waveguides. This book explores the rapid growth of integrated optics, which is devoted to the development of microscopic optical circuits based on thin film technology. Organized into nine chapters, this edition starts with an overview of the properties of dielectric slab waveguides. This book then examines the theory of directional couplers with and without diffraction gratings. Other chapters describe the numerical methods for solving guided mode as well as wave propagation problems. This text discusses as well the beam propagation method and the popular effective refractive index method. The final chapter deals with the significance of nonlinear phenomena. This book is a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate students of physics and electrical engineering. Practicing engineers and scientists in the fields of integrated optics, optical communications, and fiber sensors will find this book extremely useful.