An optical deflecting device of optical waveguide type comprising: a conductive or semi-conductive monocrystalline substrate, or a monocrystalline substrate having a conductive or semi-conductive, epitaxial or oriented film provided on the surface thereof; an optical waveguide comprising an epitaxial or oriented ferroelectric film provided on the surface of the monocrystalline substrate; and an upper electrode disposed on top of the optical waveguide. In the optical deflecting device, the conductive or semi-conductive monocrystalline substrate, or the conductive or semi-conductive, epitaxial or oriented film provided on the monocrystalline substrate acts as a lower electrode. The laser beam introduced into the optical waveguide is deflected by applying a voltage between the upper electrode and the lower electrode.

An apparatus for changing the direction of an optical beam comprises a thin film grating deflector; an optical energy source for providing optical energy to strike the deflector at a first angle with respect to gratings of the deflector and to exit the deflector at a second angle with respect to the gratings; and elements for applying a voltage to the deflector to vary the second angle. The optical energy source preferably comprises a laser diode; and a collimator for coupling energy from the laser diode to the grating deflector. The grating deflector is a planar waveguide including a plurality of stacked quantum wells formed of GaAs separated by barriers of AlGaAs. Optical energy provided to the grating deflector in a first direction is deflected in a second direction. These directions define a plane in which the waveguide is disposed. The quantum wells are stacked in a direction perpendicular to a plane of the waveguide. The optical energy source, the thin film grating deflector, the voltage applying elements and the collimator may be integrated into a single chip.

An optical deflection scanning device has a transducer, a waveguide medium for unidirectionally propagating an elastic wave based on the oscillation of the transducer. The light emitted from a light source is incident to the waveguide medium in a direction opposite the group velocity of the elastic wave in the waveguide medium. The incident light and elastic wave interact, and the incident light is deflected within the same plane as the waveguide medium in conjunction with elastic wave travel.

A scanning device having: (i) an electrooptic planar waveguide or bulk material capable of propagating light beams with minimum beam distortion, (ii) an electrooptic prism array defined on said electrooptic planar waveguide or bulk material, comprised of at least one pair of antiparallel-poled ferroelectric domain regions and, (iii) control means to apply a spatially uniform electric field throughout said electrooptic prism array using a pair of electrically-addressable continuous electrodes, so as to induce an electrically-controlled deflection to a light beam propagating through the device.

An optical circuit system which takes out at least a portion of the light of a light power source corresponding to at least one type of output voltage of an IC, board, multichip module, electronic element, or opto-electronic element and produces an optical signal, wherein the light power source is an optical waveguide into which light has been introduced, a waveguide laser, or a waveguide optical amplifier, light reflecting portions are provided at its ends and/or middle, a signal transmission waveguide is formed in contact with the side surface and/or top or bottom surface of the optical waveguide or in proximity to the same at a certain distance, and the optical signal corresponding to at least one type of output voltage of the IC, board, multichip module, electronic element, or opto-electronic element is made to propagate to the signal transmission waveguide, which optical circuit system is rich in flexibility and enables complicated optical interconnections to be handled, and components of the same.