Optical Waveguides and Fibers

Abstract

We develop a comparison method which identifies a waveguide with properties that are well known and are very similar to the one under investigation. It has a very simple mathematical basis which allows a trivial derivation of the moment method for circular cross-sectional fibers includingW-fibers, and an extension to noncircular optical waveguides. We first use the scalar approximation, and then extend to the full vector theory which accounts for polarization. Our concern is with fundamental mode propagation constants and higher mode cutoffs.