Studies of the Use of Gyrotropic and Anisotropic Materials for Mode Conversion in Thin-Film Optical-Waveguide Applications

Abstract

Wave propagation in thin-film optical waveguides using gyrotropic or anisotropic material as substrate is studied. At the film-substrate boundary, the relation between the incident and reflected fields can be expressed in terms of a scattering matrix with matrix elements representing the TE-to-TE and TM-to-TM reflection coefficients and the TE-to-TM and TM-to-TE conversion factors. The property of the scattering matrix is examined, and the condition for continuous and complete mode conversion is derived. Various schemes to achieve complete mode conversion are proposed and the performance characteristics, including the physical dimension and the tolerances in the incident angle and film thickness, for several mode-converting structures are computed and compared. Once the practicability of complete mode conversion is established, it is possible to study the feasibility of practical devices. Various schemes for the realization of such devices as the gyrator, the isolator, the optical switch, and the nondestructive read out are proposed.

Magneto-optical non-reciprocal devices in silicon photonics

“…The same magneto-optical polarization rotation principle can be applied to waveguide non-reciprocal devices [5–9]. However, phase matching in the waveguide between the transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes must be realized in order to obtain the polarization rotation, i.e.…”

A Systematic Study of Symmetrical Electromagnetic Three-Ports With Isotropic and Gyrotropic Media - Abstract

“…Three-ports with gyrotropic media fulfill nonreciprocal and control functions at microwaves and in optics. They are circulators (isocirculators) based on different physical effects, filters, switches, commutators, control power dividers, mode convertors and so on [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Resonant polarization conversion and beam shift in planar multilayered structures

“…The next problem is polarization conversion for thin-film waveguide systems. For instance, a thin-film waveguide structure on an anisotropic substrate is typically used for polarization conversion [Wang et al, 1972]. Recently, multilayered dielectric waveguides for modulation enhancement were reported [Buckman, 1976], and resonant tunneling of ligh t in optical waveguides with applications was described [logansen, 1976].…”