Abstract

The ability to predict the light propagation characteristics in various practical multimode guiding structures is very important in optical fiber communications and in optical image transfer. The usual mode-by-mode analysis is impractical when the guiding structure is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of modes. In this study a numerical technique is described which is capable of providing useful data on the propagation characteristics of optical multimode guiding structures whose index of refraction variation may be quite arbitrary. As a specific example, the problem of infinite or truncated Gaussian beam propagation in a radially inhomogeneous fiber with parabolic index profile is solved. The numerical results for the infinite Gaussian beam case are compared with exact analytical data and they are in complete agreement.

© 1978 Optical Society of America

Gaussian approximation of the fundamental modes of graded-index fibers

D. Marcuse
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 68(1) 103-109 (1978)

Propagation and diffraction of truncated Gaussian beams

V. Nourrit, J.-L. de Bougrenet de la Tocnaye, and P. Chanclou
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 18(3) 546-556 (2001)

Multimode inhomogeneous fiber couplers

C. Yeh, W. P. Brown, and R. Szejn
Appl. Opt. 18(4) 489-495 (1979)

Vector wave analysis of broadband multimode optical fibers with optimum refractive index distribution*

Shigeta Ishikawa, Kazuhito Furuya, and Yasuharu Suematsu
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 68(5) 577-583 (1978)

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S. Kozaki and H. Sakurai
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 68(4) 508-514 (1978)