Modal fields calculation using the finite difference beam propagation method

A method is described to construct modal fields for an arbitrary one- or two-dimensional refractive index structure. An arbitrary starting field is propagated along a complex axis using the slowly varying envelope approximation (SVEA). By choosing suitable values for the step-size, one mode is maximally increased in amplitude on propagating, until convergence has been obtained. For the calculation of the next mode, the mode just found is filtered out, and the procedure starts again. The method is tested for one-dimensional refractive index structures, both for nonabsorbing and for absorbing structures, and is shown to give fast convergenc

Efficient interface conditions for the semi-vectorial finite-difference beam propagation method

Efficient interface conditions (EICs) are derived for the propagation equation using the slowly varying envelope approximation for the dominant electric field component. At the interface between two different media, the two lateral second derivatives in the discretized propagation equation are adapted such that the discretized modal field equation is correct up to second order in the lateral grid spacing. Since the error term is then of the order of the lateral grid spacing, our EICs are first-order EICs. These interface conditions are compared with well-known zero-order EICs derived by Stern and Kim and Ramaswamy. It is shown that the first-order EICs yield faster convergence to the exact effective index value as the lateral grid spacing is decreased than do the zero-order EICs. It turns out that our EICs are very much like those derived by Vassallo. Using essentially the same method, he derived EICs of second and first order for the field component respectively parallel and perpendicular, to the interface. Hence the accuracy of his EICs is one order higher for the field component parallel to the interface, although it introduces an extra asymmetry in the propagation matrix

A comparison between different propagative schemes for the simulation of tapered step index slab waveguides

The performance and accuracy of a number of propagative algorithms are compared for the simulation of tapered high contrast step index slab waveguides. The considered methods include paraxial as well as nonparaxial formulations of optical field propagation. In particular attention is paid to the validity of the paraxial approximation. To test the internal consistency of the various methods the property of reciprocity is verified and it is shown that for the paraxial algorithms the reciprocity can only be fulfilled if the paraxial approximation of the power flux expression using the Poynting vector is considered. Finally, modeling results are compared with measured fiber coupling losses for an experimentally realized taper structure

Symmetry properties and scaling behaviour of quasiperiodic crystals

Contains fulltext : mmubn000001_149499248.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Promotores : A. Janner en T. Janssen119 p

Numerical solution method of nonlinear guided modes with a finite difference complex axis beam propagation method

A method to construct modal fields for an arbitrary one- or two-dimensional intensity dependent refractive index structure is described. An arbitrary starting field is propagated along an imaginary axis using the Finite Difference Beam Propagation Method (FDBPM) based upon the Slowly Varying Envelope Approximation (SVEA). First the modes are found for the linear part of the refractive index structure. By suitably choosing the complex value of the propagation step, one mode is maximally increased in amplitude. After the nonlinearity has been put on, two methods are applied to find the modes for the nonlinear structure. One method is the same as the method used for the linear part, in the other method the propagation step is left unchanged. The applicability of the method is discussed and illustrated by a calculation on a waveguide with one-dimensional cross section having Kerr-type nonlinearity