Refractive-index profiling of graded-index planar waveguides from effective indexes measured with different external refractive indexes

Abstract

We extend the well-known inverse Wentzel-Kramer-Brillouin (WKB) method for refractive-index profiling of graded-index planar waveguides. We demonstrate, with numerical examples and experimental results, that the refractive-index profile of a graded-index planar waveguide can be calculated from effective indexes measured with different external refractive indexes. With this technique, single-mode and two-mode waveguides can be profiled easily to a good accuracy.