EE235 Lecture 13

EE235. Guided Wave Optical Devices Fan 93

Lecture 13. Coupled mode theory for waveguides
References
Haus, 7.6-7.8
Introduction
Instead of waveguide-cavity coupling, another problem of great practical interest
is coupling of modes in spaces in the steady state. For example, two optical waveguides
are coupled to each other via their evanescent fields (Figure 1). A wave set up initially in
one guide is transferred to the other guide. Because the transfer can be controlled
electrically, this mechanism can be used for switching of guided optical radiation.
Another coupling is created between forward and backward waves by periodic
perturbations on an optical waveguide. These perturbations can be produced in optical
waveguides by integrated-optics fabrication methods and can be used to build the
equivalent of a mirror into an optical waveguide without interrupting the waveguide
physically. Nonlinear optical phenomena couple waves at different frequencies, which
can also be described by the coupling of modes analysis presented here.
Figure 1. Cross-sectional view of index profile forming two optical guides.
Basic formalism
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Consider two waves a
1
and a
2
, of waveguides 1 and 2, which, in the absence of
coupling, have propagation constants b
1
and b
2
. They obey the equations:

da
1
dz
= -jb
1
a
1
(13.1)

da
2
dz
= -jb
2
a
2
(13.2)
Suppose next that the two waves are weakly coupled by some means, so that a
1
is
affected by a
2
and a
2
is affected by a
1
. Then the equations become:

da
1
dz
= -jb
1
a
1
+k
12
a
2
(13.3)

da
2
dz
= -jb
2
a
2
+k
21
a
1
(13.4)
If the power is to be conserved, there are restrictions imposed on k
12
and k
21
. Weak
coupling implies that we may evaluate the power in the two waves disregarding the
coupling. We normalize a
1
and a
2
so that the power in the modes is

a
1
2
and

a
2
2
.
Because the waves may carry power in opposite directions, we must distinguish the
direction of power flow by a sign. We define

p
1,2
= 1 depending upon whether the power
flow is in the plus of minus z direction. The net power P is:

P = p
1
a
1
2
+ p
2
a
2
2
(13.5)
Power conservation requires that the power be independent of distance z,

dP
dz
= p
1
d a
1
2
dz
+ p
2
d a
2
2
dz
= 0 (13.6)
from which it follows that

p
1
k
12
+ p
2
k
21
*
= 0 (13.7)
The eigenmodes for the coupled mode equation, assuming a

e
- jbz
dependence, is,
from (13.3) and (13.4),

b -b
1
( )
b -b
2
( )
+k
12
k
21
= 0 (13.8)
with the solution

b =
b
1
+ b
2
2

b
1
-b
2
2






2
-k
12
k
21
(13.9)
For waves carrying power in the same direction,

p
1
p
2
= +1, we have
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k
12
k
21
= -k
12
2
(13.10)
and b is always real. For

p
1
p
2
= -1 (i.e., waves carrying power in opposite directions),

k
12
k
21
= k
12
2
(13.11)
and b is complex for

b
1
-b
2
2





< k
12
(13.12)
Figure 2. Dispersion diagrams for coupling of modes. (linear dependency of b
1
and b
2
upon w is
assumed).
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Suppose that both b
1
and b
2
are frequency dependent, with different group
velocities. For each w there is a pair of values b
1
and b
2
that yield the propagation
constant b of the coupled modes. If both waves have the same direction of group
velocity, the dispersion curves b
1
and b
2
may cross as shown in Figure 2a and

b =
b
1
+ b
2
2
k
12
. The propagation constant b approaches asymptotically the unperturbed
propagation constants far from the crossover.
Another case is the one of opposite group velocities as shown in Figure 2b. We
shall see how the two dispersion curves b
1
and b
2
of the two waves can be made to cross.
Suffice to point out here that a crossing of two such curves leads to exponentially
growing and decaying solutions.
Consider the case of co-directional, positive, group velocities. Suppose that waves
a
1
(0) and a
2
(0) are launched at z=0. Then the solution is as follows:

a
1
z ( ) = a
1
0 ( ) cos b
0
z ( ) + j
b
2
-b
1
2b
0
sin b
0
z ( )






+
k
12
b
0
a
2
0 ( )sin b
0
z ( )





e
- j b
1
+b
2
( ) / 2 [ ] z
(13.13)

a
2
z ( ) =
k
21
b
0
a
1
0 ( )sin b
0
z ( ) + a
2
0 ( ) cos b
0
z ( ) + j
b
1
-b
2
2b
0
sin b
0
z ( )











e
- j b
1
+b
2
( ) / 2 [ ] z
(13.14)
where

b
0
=
b
1
-b
2
2






2
+ k
12
2
(13.15)
Thus, complete transfer from one waveguide to another would only occur if b
1
=b
2
. The
solutions (13.13) to (13.15) underlie the operation of optical couplers, switches, and
tunable filters.
Optical waveguide switch
A coupler of length l such that

k
12
l = p 2 transfers the entire power from
waveguide 1 to waveguide 2 when b
1
=b
2
. If the waveguides are symmetric, (i.e. the two
waveguides are identical), the transfer is only weakly frequency dependent since b
1
=b
2
at
all frequencies and

k
12
is generally not a strong function of frequency. With a voltage
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applied onto electrodes, the bs can be shifted to opposite directions, such that

b
1
b
2
.
When

b
1
-b
2
2
= 3k
12
(13.16)
no transfer occurs between the guides. This is the principle of a waveguide optical switch.
One of the interesting applications for electrically switched directional coupler is
in the area of very high-frequency sampling and of multiplexing and demultiplexing of
optical binary pulse trains. An example of the latter is demonstrated in Figure 3. Two
independent, but synchronized data pulse trains A and B are fed into the two arms of a
direction coupler. The length of the coupling satisfies the power transfer condition
kL=p/2. The phase mismatch between the two waveguides is controlled by an electric
field applied across one of the waveguides. This electric field is due to a microwave
signal at a frequency w
m
. The resulting propagation constant mismatch

d = b
1
-b
2
, which
occurs at the maxima and the minima of the applied voltage, satisfies the condition:

d
max
=
3p
2L
(13.17)
so that the B pulses, which are synchronized to arrive during the extrema of the
microwave signal, exit from arm b. Pulses A, on the other hand, arrive when the applied
field, is zero, and since kL=p/2, cross over and exit from guide b. The result is that both
pulse trains A and B are interleaved, or multiplexed in the output of guide b.
Figure 3. Multiplexing and demultiplexing in a directional coupling configuration. (Yariv, p. 524)
The coupling coefficient
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Figure 4. Typical field pattern of a TE mode
The preceding analysis of coupling of modes in space assumed knowledge of the
coupling coefficients k
12
. Here we show one way of evaluating it. Denote the normalized
field pattern of the waveguide 1 by e
1
(x,y), that of waveguide 2 by e
2
(x,y). (See Figure 4)
The total field in both waveguides is then by assumption, the superposition of the two
field patterns

E x, y, z
( )
= a
1
z
( )
e
1
x, y
( )
+ a
2
z
( )
e
2
x, y
( )
(13.18)
The power transferred from waveguide 1 to waveguide 2 is caused by the polarization
current jwP
21
produced in waveguide 2 by the field of waveguide 1, within waveguide 2:

jwP
21
= jw e
i
-e
( )
a
1
e
1
x, y
( )
(13.19)
Notice that only (e
i
-e) appears because the polarization current

jwea
1
e
1
flows in the
absence of guide 2 and must be subtracted. The power transferred is

-
1
4
E
2
*
jwP
21
( )
da + c.c.
[ ]
= -
1
4
jwa
1
a
2
*
e
i
-e
( )
e
1
e
2
*
da + c.c.
[ ]
(13.20)
From coupling of modes we know that power transfer is

d a
2
2
dz
=k
21
a
1
a
2
*
+k
21
*
a
1
*
a
2
(13.21)
Comparison of the two equations above gives

k
21
= -
jw
4
da e
i
-e
( )
e
1
e
2
*

(13.22)
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The same approach gives

k
12
= -
jw
4
da e
i
-e
( )
e
2
e
1
*

(13.23)
Thus,

k
12
= -k
21
*
even when the symmetry is not maintained.
Consider a coupled-waveguide structure consisting of two slab waveguides. For
TE modes in the two slabs the overlap integral evaluates to

k
12
= -j
a
x
k
x
2
k
x
2
+a
x
2
( )
b
0
d + b
0
/a
x
( )
e
-a
x
D-2d ( )
(13.24)
Notice the exponential dependency on the distance between the two waveguides.
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Lecture 14. Distributed Feedback Structures
References
Haus, Chapter 8.1 8.2; Yariv, Chapter 13.4 13.5
The equation of the distributed feed back structures
In the preceding lecture we mentioned briefly the phenomenon of coupling
between two waves of opposite group velocity. To produce appreciable coupling, phase-
matching was necessary; that is, the two propagation constants could not differ by much
more than the magnitude of the coupling coefficient

12
.
Generally, waves with opposite group velocities have widely different
propagation constants. How, then, can one bring the wave with a positive group velocity
to be phase-matched with the wave with negative group velocity? In this section we will
show how this can be done.
Consider a structure of the type shown in Figure 1a. Denote the wave with
positive group velocity, the forward wave in the guiding structure, by a, the wave with
the negative group velocity, the backward wave, by b. If there is no periodicity, then
the differential equations obeyed by a and b are
da
dz
= ja (14.1)
db
dz
= jb (14.2)
Suppose, however, that a periodic perturbation of the guiding structure is introduced.
(See Figure 1). The polarization current associated with the electromagnetic field of the
wave

a e
jz
traveling along the periodic structure acquires modulation components
because the field get modulated by the perturbation with the spatial dependence
cos(2z/), where is the period. The polarization current is proportional to:
1
2
exp j
2

_
,

1
]
1
+ exp j +
2

_
,

1
]
1

(14.3)
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If -(2/) is close to , these polarization currents radiate in the backward direction
and the radiation superimposes coherently over extended distances l. The exponential
with the argument

+ 2 / ( ) [ ]z does not produce backward radiation because its spatial
dependency differs greatly from that of the backward propagating wave

e
jz
.
Figure 1. (a) Guiding structure with no periodic coupling; (b), (c) and (d) guiding structure with
coupling. (d)

n
c2
< n
c1
< n
f
.
The effect of coupling of a to b can be included in equation (14.2) by introducing
a coupling term produced by the backward-radiating polarization currents
db
dz
= jb +
ba
ae
+ j 2 / ( )z
(14.4)
A similar effect is produced by the interaction of the backward wave with the periodic
perturbation
da
dz
= ja +
ab
be
j 2 / ( )z
(14.5)
The equations above can be reduced to coupling-of-modes equations with space-
independent coefficients by introducing the new variables
a = A z ( )e
j / ( )z
, b = B z ( )e
j / ( )z
(14.6)
with the results
dA
dz
= j

A +
ab
B (14.7)
dB
dz
= j

B +
ba
A (14.8)
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These equations look like the coupling-of-modes equations introduced in the last section,
with

1,2
=

. The inverse group velocity

d
1
/ d and

d
2
/d are of opposite
sign, and phase-matched coupling occurs when

= 0 (14.9)
In this case, energy conservation requires that

ab
=
ba
*
.
Equations (14.7) and (14.8) can be simplified by the introduction of the detuning
parameter

(14.10)
which measures the deviation of the propagation constant from /. In the neighborhood
of the frequency
0
for which
0
( ) = , we have
=
0
( ) +
d
d

0
( ) (14.11)
and thus
=

0
v
g
(14.12)
where v
g
is the group velocity d d . With the detuning parameter and
ab
=
ba
*
,
equations (14.7) and (14.8) assume the simple form:
dA
dz
= jA +B (14.13)
dB
dz
= jB +
*
A (14.14)
The propagation constant of the coupled system is thus
=
2

2
(14.15)
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Figure 2. Dispersion diagram from (14.7) and (14.8) with the unperturbed propagation constant
() proportional to .
Reflection filter
The equations of distributed feedback (14.13) and (14.14) describe periodic
perturbations that extend over a given length of guiding structure. Such a structure with a
length l behaves a reflection filter. In this section we derive the response of such a
structure.
Consider the reflection from a periodic structure of length l, with no backward
propagation at z=0, i.e. B(z=0)=0. The solutions of (14.13) and (14.14) are of the form


exp mz ( ) , where
=
2

2
(14.16)
with

=
ab
=
ba
*
and

. The solutions are growing and decaying exponentials

when < , whereas they are periodic functions in the range > .
The general solutions with arbitrary constants are
A = A
+
e
z
+ A

e
z
(14.17)
B = B
+
e
z
+ B

e
z
(14.18)
Figure 3. Reflection filter
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From (14.13) we have a relation between

B

and

A

=
m + j

(14.19)
At z=0 there is no reflected wave,

B
+
= B

, and thus
B = 2B
+
sinh z ( ) (14.20)
Using (14.14), we obtain for A z ( ) :
A = 2B
+

*
cosh z
j

*
sinh z

(14.21)
The reflection coefficients =
B
A
at z = l is
l ( ) =
sinh l

*
( )
cosh l + j
*
( )
sinh l
(14.22)
Figure 4 shows l ( ) as a function of , i.e. as a function of frequency.
Figure 4. Reflection coefficients as a function of for uniform distributed feedback structure
of length l.
Simple evaluation of the coupling constant for multi-layer structures
The preceding analysis applies to any periodic structure. In particular, it applies to
multiple dielectric layers, provided, of course, that the reflection from each layer is weak
so that the system can be described by a differential equation. To relate the present
analysis to the multi-layer problem, we have to evaluate
ab

for a multi-layer structure.
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This is done with the help of Figure 5. The two layers forming one period of the periodic
structure are defined as having index n+n and n-n immersed in a medium of index n.
We compute the reflection from these two layers that are one-quarter wavelength thick at
the resonance wavelength (/2n=).
Figure 5. Two dielectric layers in a uniform medium of index n.
The wave impedance seen at the reference plane 2, under normal incidence
Z z
2
( ) =

0

0
n
1
2
nn
2
2
(14.23)
and
n
1
n
2
=
n + n
n n
(14.24)
Therefore
Z z
2
( ) =
n + n
n n

2
1
n

0

0
1+
4n
n

1
n

0

0
(14.25)
The reflection of one section of the periodic layer is, by definition, equal to the reflection
coefficient produced by one double layer, one section of the periodic structure. From
(14.14) with dz = , B =
*
A = A , or
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*
= =
1+ 4
n
n

1
1+ 4
n
n

+1

2n
n
(14.26)
From which the coupling constant is determined.