New method for calculating the spectra and radiation losses of leaky waves in multilayer optical waveguides

Abstract

The efficiency of a new method for calculating the spectrum and attenuation coefficient of leaky electromagnetic modes is demonstrated with multilayer planar optical waveguides the guiding properties of which are determined by antiresonant reflection from the multilayer cladding (antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides) rather than by total internal reflection from the core-cladding interface as in standard optical waveguides. The new method applies to calculation of both electromagnetic modes in dielectric waveguides and electron quantum states in multibarrier semiconductor heterostructures. The characteristics of multilayer waveguides calculated by the new method are compared with published data obtained from a complex dispersion relation by the transfer matrix method. As an example, the wavelength dependence of the radiation losses for the first TE mode of a planar optical waveguide containing 52 pairs of layers is calculated.