Magnetooptics in cylindrical structures

Abstract

Understanding magnetooptics in cylindrical structures presents interest in the development of magnetic sensor and nonreciprocal devices compatible with optical fibers. The present work studies wave propagation in dielectric circular cylindrical structures characterized by magnetic permeability and electric permittivity tensors at axial magnetization. The Helmholtz equations deduced from the Maxwell equations in transverse circularly polarized representation provide electric and magnetic fields. With the restriction to terms linear in off-diagonal tensor elements, these can be expressed analytically. The results are applied to magnetooptic (MO) circular cylindrical waveguides with a step refractive index profile. The nonreciprocal propagation is illustrated on waveguides with an yttrium iron garnet (YIG) core and a lower refractive index cladding formed by gallium substituted yttrium iron garnet (GaYIG) at the optical communication wavelength. The propagation distance required for the isolator operation is about one hundred micrometers. The approach may be applied to other structures of cylindrical symmetry in the range from microwave to optical frequencies.