Surface nonlocality effects on an optically active waveguide

A new wave-vector-space method capable of finding electromagnetic wave prop agation in bounded nonlocal media without using boundary conditions is used to find the modes of an optically active planar dielectric waveguide. Opti cal activity involves first-order wave-vector dispersion (nonlocality). The method finds how the altered nonlocal interaction close to the surfaces af fects the waveguide modes. It is found that first-order effects of the surf ace layer nonlocality enter both the dispersion relation and the field prof iles. The waveguide geometry is also used as an impetus to generalize sever al aspects of the wave-vector-space method. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)08922-7].