Abstract

A detailed wave-optical analysis is presented for the propagation along semileaky-type thin-film optical waveguides. This type of waveguide, originally proposed by Sosnowski as the polarization mode filter, includes an isotropic film and anisotropic substrate with the refractive index relation and the crystal-axis orientation arranged so that the guided modes are possible in TE (or TM) polarization only. A set of normal modes is derived first, where the modes of leaky polarization form a continuum. Next are studied, on the basis of normal-mode expansion, the field deformation and external radiation characteristics of a guided wave of leaky polarization that penetrates into the semileaky structure. An efficient polarization-discrimination property is shown for the example of a polyurethane film/calcite substrate configuration. A brief discussion is also given to the guided-radiation mode coupling that occurs in a perturbed structure with off-diagonal permittivity tensor elements.

© 1977 Optical Society of America

Wave propagation in anisotropic thin-film optical waveguides

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