Acoustic modes in optical fiberlike waveguides

A perturbation analysis of guided and leaky modes in fiber acoustic waveguides with core and cladding parameters that are slightly different is presented. The perturbing parameter is the shear-velocity difference between the core and cladding material epsilon /sub s/. Acoustic fields and eigenvalues are expanded in power series of epsilon /sub s//sup 1/2/ for radial and flexural modes and in powers of epsilon /sub 3/ for torsional modes. Expansion of leaky longitudinal modes is also in terms of epsilon /sub s/, but the nature of perturbation analysis for these modes is somewhat different from that of guided modes. Zero-order solutions for all types of modes are obtained, and some important higher-order effects are discussed. Common features of optical and acoustic modes in weakly guiding fibers are addressed. It is shown that with respect to zero-order solutions of guided modes, optical and acoustic fibers have identical propagation characteristics. Exact and zero-order propagation characteristics for several lower-order shear-type modes are calculated and compared.<>