A method for computing guided waves in integrated optics. I: Mathematical analysis (Q2719226)

The authors are interested in open stratified electromagnetic waveguides. In this case, the device is composed by parallel layers each of them having a characteristic refraction index. The guide is supposed to be invariant with respect to both the geometry and to its physical characteristics under any translation along one privileged space direction. In this paper the authors make the so-called weak guidance assumption which allows them to work with a simplified scalar model instead of the full vectorial Maxwell's system. The main difficulty of the problem under consideration comes from the unboundedness of the cross section of the guide. As a result, both the existence of guided modes and their numerical computation are not obvious.