Abstract

Guided waves propagating on thin film structures are an important approach to optical signal processing. As these waves propagate, they experience noise arising from fluctuations that are inherent in all media. The presence of these fluctuations will have a detrimental effect on various optical processes. Accordingly, it is important to have a detailed understanding of how noise manifests itself in guided wave processes. As a specific problem of interest, we have examined the effect of light scattering noise arising from thermal spin-wave fluctuations on magnetooptic interaction of guided waves utilizing the Faraday rotation to coherently scatter TE into TM guided waves.

© 1989 Optical Society of America