Confinement and modal gain in dielectric waveguides

Author

Visser, T.D. ; Demeulenaere, B. ; Haes, J. ; Lenstra, D. ; Baets, R. ; Blok, H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys. & Astron., Free Univ. Hospital, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Volume

14

Issue

5

fYear

1996

fDate

5/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

885

Lastpage

887

Abstract

Two exact expressions are derived for the effective mode indices of dielectric slab waveguides with complex refractive indices. One is for TE modes, the other for TM modes. The identities are valid for any guided mode of any dielectric slab waveguide and can be successfully employed to check the accuracy of mode solvers. They explain why TE gain can be much greater than TM gain even when the confinement factors are comparable. Also, it is shown that an often used approximation for the TM gain is unreliable under practical conditions. A correct approximation is given

Keywords

approximation theory; dielectric waveguides; optical planar waveguides; optical waveguide theory; TE gain; TE modes; TM gain; TM modes; complex refractive indices; confinement factors; dielectric slab waveguides; dielectric waveguide confinement; effective mode indices; exact expressions; guided mode; modal gain; mode solver accuracy; optical waveguides; Astronomy; Dielectric substrates; Electromagnetic waveguides; Gain; Laboratories; Permittivity; Physics; Slabs; Space technology; Tellurium;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.495172

Filename

495172