In this work we analyze the optical propagation in a composite dielectric ridged waveguide calculating several parameters that characterize the linear and the nonlinear phenomena. This novel composite waveguide consists of a circular central core and many circular sectoral waveguides at the periphery, while the whole device can be considered as an nonlinear optical coupler. Firstly, we analyze the linear optical propagation in a sectoral dielectric birefringent waveguide calculating the propagation constant, the effective refractive index and the normalized propagation constant in the weak-guidance regime. Several simulations are performed varying some of the parameters of the geometry and the optical frequency in order to produce dispersion diagrams. Following, the electric and magnetic field distributions for the fundamental linear guided modes are derived. Finally, we calculate the linear coupling coefficient between two identical sectoral waveguides, the linear coupling coefficient between a sectoral waveguide and the circular-core waveguide, and the sectoral waveguide mode effective area for the evaluation of Kerr nonlinear coefficient.

Date Published: 3 June 2005
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 5825, Opto-Ireland 2005: Optoelectronics, Photonic Devices, and Optical Networks, (3 June 2005); doi: 10.1117/12.605533

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5825:
Opto-Ireland 2005: Optoelectronics, Photonic Devices, and Optical Networks
John Gerard McInerney; Harold S. Gamble; Gerald Farrell; David M. Denieffe; Padraig Hughes; R. Alan Moore; Liam Barry, Editor(s)