Optical Fiber Communications

Waveguides

Yasser M. Sabry, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Ain Shams University
Cairo, Egypt
Fall 2022-2023
 SM waveguide: the optical wire
• Discrete version of the optical • Integrated version of the
wire optical wire
Optical fiber Silicon photonic waveguide

Planar lightwave circuits

• The SM waveguide is the optical wire and

is a basic building block in the different
components

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 Backbone of the components

Directional coupler (tap coupler,…)

Ring resonator (filter, add/drop mux,…)
Modulation arm

Modulating signal

Y-junction (splitter/combiner) MZI (modulator,...)

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 Basic idea of light guiding

Guided ray

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 Guided modes of the symm. slab

/2

/2

=d

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 Looking for waveguide modes
𝑘𝑜
• Harmonic field and mode of the WG
2𝜋
𝐸𝑚 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧, 𝑡 = 𝑬𝑚(𝑥, 𝑦)𝑒 𝑖(𝜔𝑡−𝛽𝑚𝑧) 𝛽𝑚 = 𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑚
𝜆
 A waveguide mode is a transverse field pattern whose amplitude and
polarization profiles remain constant along the longitudinal z coordinate. The
mode is associated with a certain propagation constant β

𝛻𝒕𝟐 𝑬(𝑥, 𝑦) − (𝛽 𝟐 − 𝑘 𝟐 )𝑬(𝑥, 𝑦) = 0

• For 1-D waveguide: two types of solutions
𝐸 𝑥, 𝑧, 𝑡 = 𝑬(𝑥)𝑒 𝑖(𝜔𝑡−𝛽𝑧)

TE polarization TM polarization
(Ey, Hx, Hz) (Hy, Ex, Ez)
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 Eff. index and norm. constant

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 Norm. constant and # of modes

SM V<𝜋
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 Orthogonality of the modes

 The guides modes form a discrete set of orthogonal modes

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 Asymmetric slab waveguides
𝑛1 > 𝑛2 > 𝑛3

Dispersion characteristics

• Asymmetry factor
TE

TM

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 2D or channel waveguides
Strip facilitates confinement Sensitive to sidewall roughness
in y direction but less bending loss

(strip)

No etching

Less confinement
and high bending Ex: Ti:
loss but less LiNbO3
roughness loss waveguide
Nearly all useful photonic devices use channel WG rather than slab WG
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 Solution of 2D waveguides
• Except for special geometry (optical fibers), 2D dielectric
waveguides have no analytical solutions .
• Numerical methods (ex: beam propagation method) are used.
• Approximate methods exist, such as the effective index method
𝐸𝑦 𝐻𝑦

TE TM

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 The effective index method
• In the effective index method, we convert the 2D problem
into a succession of 1D problems.
• We seek quasi-TE (Ez<<Hz ) and quasi-TM (Hz<<Ez) modes
assuming the aspect ratio is large enough (w>h)

w>h

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 Basic idea of EIM
3 horizontal slabs
• Separate the 9-section
waveguide into columns, h
each of which can be
solved individually as a
slab guide to find its own
effective index.

• Then, in a second step, we

treat these three effective
indices as the core and
claddings of a slab
waveguide, which is solved
to give the overall effective
index. The polarization is
flipped in this step

Equivalent vertical slab

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 Rib waveguide

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 Buried waveguide

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 Mathematical formulation

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