Degeneracy

of LP modes:

In Lecture 4, I noted that the two different implicit equations of optical fibres led to degenerate
modes. However, this relationship is not a trivial one. The following two expressions give
degenerate solutions:

HE Modes:
"#$ ()
"#$ ()
=

" () " ()

EH Modes:
"-$ ()
"-$ ()
=

" ()
" ()

Let = + 1 for HE modes and = 1 for EH modes in the LP mode basis. Therefore LPln
modes should be equivalent to HE(m+1)n and EH(m-1)n modes. The implicit equations become:

HE Modes:
3 ()
3 ()
=

3-$ () 3-$ ()

EH Modes:
3 ()
3 ()
=

3#$ ()
3#$ ()

We now make use of the following recurrence relations:

2
"-$ =
"#$
"

2
"-$ =
+ "#$
"

The expression for the HE(m+1)n modes can thus be re-written as:
3 ()
3 ()
=

2
2

3 3#$

3 + 3#$

It follows that:
1
1
=

2 3#$
2 + 3#$
3 ()
3 ()

Taking the inverse, cancelling 2 terms on both sides and then inversing again we get:

3 ()
3 ()
=

3#$ ()
3#$ ()

which is the implicit equation for EH(m-1)n modes. Hence the two mode families are degenerate.