EXTENSION OF THE EQUIVALENT OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDE METHOD TO ANALYZE MULTIMODE OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDES

We present an extension of the equivalent optical waveguide method (EO WM) to analyze multimode optical waveguides with arbitrary refractive index profiles. Effective indices, propagation constants, and coupling /switching properties of multimode planar and channel optical waveguid es can be easily obtained. This extension involves modeling the origin al optical waveguide by means of an equivalent optical waveguide for e ach guided mode. The effective indices are evaluated by applying the a symptotic effective index method (AEIM). Numerical values were obtaine d and compared with those presented by other authors. In all cases, go od convergence and accuracy was noticed. (C) 1998 Society of Photo-Opt ical instrumentation Engineers. [S0091-3286(98)02603-8].