Abstract

Self-imaging¹ in multimode waveguides has been used to accomplish splitting and switching operations in optical-waveguide devices.² In highly multimode waveguides, images of the input are produced periodically along the length of the guide. For example, a single input to the center of a wide guide produces symmetric patterns of two, four, eight, etc., intensity peaks across the width of the guide at different distances from the input. These devices are usually analyzed by using a paraxial approximation in which the separation between the propagation constants β_m of these modes is an exact multiple of a constant. Device operation is evaluated here by using an analysis that takes actual mode shapes and propagation constants into account.

© 1995 Optical Society of America