H. Harsoyono

pp. 385 - 391

Abstract

A study of coupling characteristics between two optically nonlinear planar waveguides has been
performed in terms of their individual analytical solutions. It is shown that with an appropriate choice of
guide widths and proper redefinition of effective propagation constants, the commonly adopted dual waveguide coupled equations can be formally retained even when the optical nonlinearity in each guide is fully
taken into account. A specific numerical illustration of the power flow patern was given on the basis of its
analytical expression derived from the coupled equations. The result describes the detailed coupling characteristics and its variation with respect to input optical power, demonstrating its viability for active optical
device applications.

Keywords

• nonlinear optics
• directional coupler
• all-optical switching