1932
JULY 1991
Power Exchange in Tapered Optical Couplers
Wei-Ping Huang, Member, IEEE, and Brent E. Little, Student Member, IEEE
Abstract-The power exchange between nonparallel optical
waveguides or tapered couplers is analyzed by the coupled-mode
theory based on local modes of the individual waveguides (local
waveguide modes). A self-consistent nonorthogonal coupled-
mode formulation is presented and transformed into an or-
thogonal form which is equivalent to the coupled-mode equa-
tions for the local modes of the coupled waveguides (local array
modes). The coupled-mode equations are then solved numeri-
cally and the effect of the taper on the power exchange between
the two guides is studied.
I. INTRODUCTION
C OUPLED waveguiding structures are basic elements
in guided-wave optoelectronic and fiberoptic devices.
Tapered couplers or nonparallel waveguides are used in
optical directional couplers for the purpose of reducing
crosstalk [ 11, improving fabrication tolerance-increasing
bandwidth 121, and suppressing filter sidelobes 131. Since
the overall performance of the couplers such as transmis-
sion, crosstalk, and extinction ratio are often critically af-
fected by the characteristics of the tapered and/or non-
parallel sections, it is important to undertake a rigorous
analysis of the power exchange between the tapered and/
or nonparallel waveguide structures.
Coupled-mode theory based on local normal modes is
often adopted for the analysis of the tapered and nonpar-
allel waveguide structures 141-171. Two types of local
modes are employed in the analysis: the local array modes
defined as the normal modes of the parallel waveguides
at a position along the z axis and the local waveguide
modes defined as the normal modes of the individual uni-
form waveguides at z . The conventional orthogonal cou-
pled-mode theory 141-171 can be applied to the description
of the mode coupling between the local array modes. If
the local waveguide modes are chosen as the base func-
tions in the trial solutions, the nonorthogonal coupled-
mode formalism 181-11 I] can be used. The coupled-mode
formulation based on the exact local array modes contains
less approximation than the one based on waveguide
modes, but usually more complicated and difficult to ap-
ply to practical waveguide structures such as circular fi-
bers and channel waveguides.
The nonorthogonal coupled-mode formulations have
been applied to the parallel [8]-[11] and the periodic 1121-
Manuscript received November 8, 1990; revised February 19, 1991. This
work was supported in part by a grant from the Natural Science and En-
gineering Research Council of Canada. The work of B. E. Little was sup-
ported by a scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Re-
search Council of Canada.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computing En-
gineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont.. Canada N2L 3G1.
IEEE Log Number 9100422.
0018-919719110700-1932$01.000 1991 IEEE
IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL 27. NO 7.
1141 coupled waveguide structures and have been shown
to yield more accurate results than the conventional or-
thogonal coupled-mode theory in most cases examined.
One may argue that some improvement in accuracy should
also be expected if the theory is to be applied to the non-
parallel or tapered coupled waveguide structures. So far,
two self-consistent nonorthogonal coupled-mode formu-
lations have been proposed: a scalar theory by Syms and
Peal1 1151, [16] and a vector theory by Haus and Huang
[ 171, [ 181. Analytical solutions have been obtained for the
synchronous tapered couplers in which the local wave-
guide modes have the same propagation constants 1161,
1181. Little attention, however, has been paid to the ta-
pered couplers in which the two local waveguide modes
are not synchronous. The asynchronous tapered couplers
are of interest in devices such as the grating-assisted cou-
plers [ 121-[ 141, [ 191 and tapered velocity couplers 1201,
1211. Therefore, a thorough understanding of their char-
acteristics is important for the optimum design of such
devices.
In Section 11, the coupled-mode theory based on local
waveguide modes is presented. The nonorthogonal cou-
pled-mode formulation is transformed into an orthogonal
form that is identical to the coupled-mode theory based
on the array modes. A self-consistent adiabatic approxi-
mation that is valid for slowly tapered couplers is intro-
duced. Both types of coupled-mode equations are solved
numerically in Section 111. The effect of the coupling
caused by the taper is first studied and the scope of valid-
ity of a self-consistent adiabatic approximation is inves-
tigated. Some salient features of the power exchange be-
tween the two tapered and/or nonparallel waveguides are
revealed and discussed.
11. COUPLED-MODE THEORY
A typical tapered coupler consists of two or more ta-
pered or nonparallel waveguides with arbitrary cross sec-
tions. The taper may be caused by the variation of the
refractive index and/or the geometric shape of the wave-
guides and can be characterized by a refractive index n ( x ,
y, z ) that varies with x, y , and z. Due to the longitudinally
nonhomogeneous nature of the structures, a rigorous anal-
ysis of the tapered optical couplers is usually difficult. In
the coupled-mode theory, we assume that the total elec-
tromagnetic fields in the tapered couplers can be ex-
pressed as a linear superposition of the two local modes
of the individual waveguides defined at z .
E(x, y, 4 = a , ( z ) e l ( x ,y ; z ) + az(z)e2(x,y ; z )
H ( x , y, z) = a d z ) h , ( x ,y ; z ) + az(z)h,(x, y; z ) (1)
HUANG AND LITTLE: POWER EXCHANGE IN TAPERED OPTICAL COUPLERS 1933

where E and H are the unknown electric and magnetic represents the additional coupling caused by the taper. It
fields of the tapered coupler and e,, hi are the fields as- has been shown that the additional coupling terms F, are
sociated with the local waveguide modes which are as- essential for the nonorthogonal coupled-mode formula-
sumed to be known. tion (2)-(6) to be self-consistent [ 1 5 ] . Even for a very
The expansion ( 1 ) is a good approximation if: slow taper, Fjj should not be neglected, otherwise the law
1 ) each waveguide in isolation supports only and at of power conservation will be violated. A self-consistent
least one guided mode in the entire coupling region; adiabatic approximation for slowly tapered couplers may
2 ) the two waveguides are not very closely coupled or/ be introduced when we discuss the coupling between the
and strongly guided [ 9 ] , [ 1 1 1 ; local array modes in the orthogonal coupled-mode for-
3 ) the taper varies slowly so that the coupling to the mulation.
radiation modes and/or the effect of wavefront tilt may be
neglected. Orthogonal Formulation
Generalization of the coupled-mode theory to the cases The orthogonal coupled-mode formulation can be de-
of multimode coupling and/or coupling to radiation modes rived from (2) by a linear transformation. We note that,
is straightforward, but mathematically tedious. Condition for copropagating waves in a lossless structure, the matrix
2) may also be waived if one chooses the exact array H is Hermitian and P is positive definite. Therefore, we
modes as the basis for the trial solutions. The inclusion may perform a linear transformation
of the wavefront tilt effect in the coupled-mode theory may
be achieved by a modified trial solution and will be pre- A=MW (7)
sented elsewhere [ 2 2 ] . An assessment of the scope of va- where the matrix M is determined by
lidity of the approximations made in the present formu-
lation will be made in comparison with a more rigorous M+PM = I (8)
theory reported there. Nevertheless, the above conditions M + H M = [A,]. (9)
might not be very restrictive and the assumptions made
are believed to be acceptable for many practical applica- M + is the complex conjugate transpose of M . Then ( 2 )
will be translated into
tions where the tilted angles of the nonparallel or tapered
sections are small. d
- W = -j[A,]W - NW (10)
dz
Nonorthogonal Formulation which are the orthogonal coupled-mode equations for the
The coupled-mode equations governing the evolution local array modes that are given in terms of the linear
of the expansion coefficients a l ( z )and a2(z)can be derived superposition of the local waveguide modes determined
by substituting (1) into the Maxwell's equations [ 151. In by the transformation (7). The diagonal elements A,(a =
matrix form, the equations are written as s, a ) are the propagation constants of the symmetric-like
d and antisymmetric-like local array modes. The transform
P-A = -jHA - FA (2) matrix can be expressed as
dz
M = Q-IU (11)
where
where the matrix Q is defined by
H IJ. = p .I .J PJ . +
(3) K,
Q'Q = P
and P I and P2 are the propagation constants of the local
modes of guide 1 and 2 . and U is a unitary matrix
P
u+u= I .
(4) The coupling coefficients are obtained as
are the power matrix and P I 2and P z l are not zero because d
N=M+P-M+M+FM. (14)
of the nonorthogonality of the local waveguide modes. dz
Without loss of generality, the matrix elements P , may By imposing the condition for the power conservation,
be normalized to be P I 1= P22 = 1 and P I 2= P 2 ] = X . one can easily prove that the coupling coefficients are an-
tisymmetric, i.e.,
Klj = f j (n2 - .;)e,* ej da (5) N,, = -N,*, (15)
stand for the coupling due to the tunneling of the evanes- and the diagonal elements N,, = N,, = 0 . This result is
cent fields of the local guided-mode of waveguide i into to be expected: since the coupling matrix in (10) is real,
waveguide j and its diagonal elements must be zero; otherwise the power
will be lost or generated and thus the power conservation
is violated. It is also clear that the additional coupling
terms F, are essential to ensure the self-consistency of the
I934 IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS. VOL. 27. NO. 7 . JULY 1991

coupled-mode formulation. The explicit expressions for

A,, Q,M , and N and a procedure to determine them are
given in Appendix I.
The orthogonal coupled-mode equations can also be de-
rived from the Maxwells equations when the fields in the
tapered couplers are represented by the linear superposi-
tion of the local array modes [15]. The coupling coeffi-
cients are resulted solely from the taper and given by
n2 1

where e,, h,, and e,, ha are the fields of the local array \
modes. By using the linear transformation ( 7 ) , they can ............................................
be expressed as 0
Fig. I , A tapered coupler made of two symmetric step-index slab wave-
e, = C Mjaei (174 guides.

h, = Mj,hj.
.- . (17b)
If the two guides are very far apart at z = L , the cross-
By substituting (17) into (16), one obtains the coupling power may be neglected so that
matrix (14) that is derived by the linear transformation.
The evaluation of the coupling coefficients between the
local array modes using (14) is usually complicated. An
alternative expression for the coupling coefficient may be
derived from (16) [23]
Therefore the crosstalk between the two guides may be
greatly reduced by introducing the tapered section in the
output port of the directional couplers.
Note that the coupling between the local array modes is
proportional to the rate of change in the refractive index
along z . If the taper is very slow, then the coupling be- 111. ANALYSIS OF A TAPERED COUPLER
tween the local array modes may be neglected and a self- The coupler to be analyzed is shown schematically in
consistent coupled-mode formulation under the adiabatic Fig. 1. It is made of two straight step-index slab wave-
approximation is obtained. In general, however, the cou- guides separating at an angle 219. Although we only treat
pling due to taper should be considered and its effect on the slab waveguide structures in this paper, the conclu-
the power exchange between the guides should be care- sions draw from the analysis are expected to apply to the
fully examined. tapered couplers made of other waveguide structures, too.
For the synchronous couplers in which the local modes The refractive index of the tapered coupler at z may be
of the waveguides have the same propagation constants, given by
there is no coupling between the local array modes, i.e.,
N,, = 0. Thus, (10) can be integrated to yield exact so- n2(x, z ) = ni + (n: - n i ) ~ ( x+ t + 2w1)s(-x - t )
lutions [ 151. When the waveguides are not synchronous,
exact analytical solutions are known only for certain cases
where some functional relations among A,, A,, and N,ya
must hold [24], [25]. In general, the coupled-mode equa- where
tions can be readily solved by using certain numerical
techniques. t = to +(tan 0 ) z (23)
The amplitudes of the coupled modes are obtained via
the linear transformation and given as is half the separation between the two local waveguides
and S(x) is the unit step function. The coupling coeffi-
ai(z> = M I , ( z ) ~ , ( z )+ M,a(z)w,(z) (19a) cients between the local TE waveguide modes caused by
tunneling of the evanescent fields of the guided mode of
a&) = M2, (z> w, (z) + M2, (I)W , (z) (19b) one guide to the other guide K,,, the additional coupling
where w,(z) and wa(z) are the mode amplitudes of the due to the taper F,,, and the crosspower P,, are calculated
symmetric and the antisymmetric local normal modes of by using ( 5 ) , (6), and (4) and then the coupled-mode
the coupled structures (local array modes). The power in equations (2) are solved numerically by using the Runge-
guide 1 and 2 at z = L is Kutta method.
To solve the orthogonal coupled-mode equations (lo),
P,(L) = la1 + xu2l:=r. (20a) one has to evaluate the coupling coefficients Nso. We first
calculate the transform matrix MI, in Appendix I and then
PAL) = [U2 + Xul(;=,. make use of the expression (18). Note that the derivative
HUANG AND LITTLE: POWER EXCHANGE IN TAPERED OPTICAL COUPLERS I935

Power Exchange Asynchronous 0 = 0 1' Pouer Exchange Asychronous B = 0 5'

1 00 -f

Q
3
a
0

600 -

500 I 500 I I
000 200 YO0 600 800 I 00 000 I 00 2 00 3 00 9 00 5 00

Distance Cum) ( X 1 0 3 ) Distance (um) ( X 1 0 2 )

P o u e r Exhanqe Asynchronous 8 = 1 0

,, c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - - - - _ _ - .

..,....,. . .............,...,,..,.,.., ........,.,,.,................,.......................

800 J

i
0
a
mo -

600 -

500
000 I 00 2 00 3 00 Y 00 5 00
Distance (um) ( X 1 0 2 )

Fig. 2 . Comparison of different solutions. The output power PI from guide 1 as a function of the length of nonparallel section
zfor different tilt angles. The waveguide parameters: n I = n, = 3.1, no = 3.0, w , = 0.4 pm, w2 = 0.3 pm, t,, = 0.5 pm, h
= 1.5 pm. (a) 0 = 0 . I " ; (b) 0 = 0.5"; ( c ) 0 = 1.0".Solid line: exact solutions; dotted line: ignoring F12;
dashed line: ignoring
NW.

of n2 with respect to z is where eysand eyumay be given in terms of eyl and ey2 by
(17). Expression (25) shows clearly that the coupling be-
tween the local array modes are proportional to tan 8 , the
refractive index difference of the core and cladding, and
+ (n: - ni)[-6(x - t) + 6(x -t - 2w2)I). beat length between the symmetric-like and antisymmet-
(24) ric-like local array modes.
We have Fig. 2(a)-(c) show the output power from guide 1 as
function of the length of the tapered section z. The input
1
xu tan e{(n: - nil
N sa =-- we' conditions are assumed to be a l ( 0 ) = 1 and a2(0) = 0.
4 h, - The refractive indexes are n l = n2 = 3.1 and no = 3.0.
The half width of each slab is w1 = 0.4 pm and w2 = 0.3
pm. The half separation between the slabs is to = 0.5 pm,
The wavelength is h = 1.5 pm. The tilt angle is chosen
1936 IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 27. NO. 7, JULY 1991

0 00 I ,
000 a 0 900 600 800 1 00 000 1 00 2 00 3 00 9 00 5 00

Distance cum) (X103) Distance Cum) (X102)

(a) (b)

BOO -
aJ
3

'l

700 -

600,

t
000 so 0 1 00 1 50 2 00
Distance Cum) ( X 1 0 2 )

(C)

Fig. 3 . Power exchange between the guides of different widths. The output power PI from guide 1 as a function of the length
of nonparallel section z for different tilt angles. The waveguide parameters: n , = nz = 3.1, ql = 3.0. II', = 0.4 pm, t, = 0.5
pm, = 1.5 pm. (a) 0 = 0.1"; (b) 0 = 0.5"; (c) 0 = 1.0". Dashed-dotted line: wZ = 0.2 pm; dashed line: IC? = 0.3 pm; solid
line: w Z = 0.4 wm.

to be 8 = 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0" for each case. The solid
curve corresponds to the exact solutions while the dash
and dotted curves are the solutions that neglect N,, and
Fv, respectively. It is seen that when the tilt angle is small,
the adiabatic approximation (i.e., solution that ignores
NJ gives very accurate prediction of the power exchange
between the guides. As the tilt angle increases, the ac-
curacy of the adiabatic approximation decreases as shown
in Fig. 2(c) thereby the effect of the taper has to be con-
sidered in the analysis. The solution that ignores FiJshows
significant discrepancy with the exact solution even the
tilt angle is small and also violates the power conservation
(in our examples, the total power predicted from the so-
lution without Fij fluctuates up to 10% around the total
input power). These results provide clear evidence in sup-
port of the argument that ignoring the additional coupling
term F,, in the coupled-mode formulation for the tapered
couplers will violate the power conservation and may lead
to erroneous results for the power exchange between the
two waveguides.
We also studied the effect of "detuning" between the
two guides on the power exchange. Fig. 3(a)-(c) show
the output from guide 1 as function of the tapered section
z for different tilt angles. The parameters used are the same
as Fig. 2 except that the width of slab 2 varies as w2 =
0.4, 0.3, 0.2 pm, which are represented by solid, dashed,
and dashed-dotted curves, respectively. Wc first observe
that power in guide 1 oscillates due to the coupling be-
tween the two guides at the early stage of the tapered sec-
tion. The oscillation of the power is most obvious when
the two guides are synchronous (solid curves) and sub-
sides when the guides deviate from synchronism (dashed-

-.
HUANG AND LITTLE. POWER EXCHANGE IN TAPERED OPTICAL COUPLERS 1937

dotted curves). A steady state of the power in one guide

will be reached beyond a critical length which is related
to the tilt angle. It is seen that the critical length decreases
as the tilt angle increases. The final amount of output
power from guide 1 is determined by both the amount of
detuning between the guides and the tilt angle. In our ex-
amples where al(0) = 1 and a2(0) = 0 are assumed, the
further away from synchronism the coupled waveguides
are, the more power will remain in guide 1 , hence the
lower the crosstalk. Another interesting observation is that
the power level is higher in Fig. 3(a) than Fig. 3(b) which C2I = c12
implies that the smaller tilt angle may not always lead to and
greater amount of crosstalk. An optimum angle may exist
at which the minimum crosstalk can be achieved.

APPENDIX I
TRANSFORMATION BETWEEN THE WAVEGUIDE AND
ARRAYMODES
H' is diagonalized through a unitary transformation
If we restrict to the forward propagating modes, the
power matrix P is positive definite. Thus P can be written B = UW (A 13)
as a product of a matrix and its complex conjugate where
P = Q'Q (AI) u+u= z (A14)
where Q is expressed as and
= r s a sina) (A21 U+H'U = [A,] ('415)
sin a cos a where [ A , ] is a diagonal matrix with elements &(CY = s,
with X = sin 2 a . The coupling matrix H may be given a ) that are the propagation constants of the local array
explicitly as modes.

where
(A16)
Pi = PI + KII
The unitary matrix is
Pi = 02 + K22
cos 4 -sin 4
K = XP1 + K21 (A 17)
= XP, +KI~. (-44)
where
A set of power-orthogonal modes are defined through the
transformation 2c12
tan (241) = ~
('418)
B = QA. 645) CII - c22

The coupled-mode equations are reduced to or

with the Hermitian coupling matrix

(A6) 4 =
-
2
tan-'
i PI - 02 + KII - K22

(A 19)
H' [Q']-'HQ-' (A7) The coupling matrix for the local array modes becomes

F' = [Q+]-'FQ-' -

Now the new coupling matrix H' remains Hermitian and

(A81
N = U'[Q']-'FQ-'U - Ut Ig
dz
Q]Q-'U + U + dzd U .
-

can be written as (A201

Let
(A91
A=MW

-
1938 IOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS. VOL. 21, NO. 7. JULY 1991

where W. P. Huang, B. Little, and S. K. Chaudhuri, A new approach to

grating-assisted couplers, J. Lightwave Techno/., to be published.

M = Q-U. R. G. Peall and R. R. A. Syms, Scalar strong coupled mode theory

for slowly-varying waveguide arrays, Opt. Commun., pp. 421-424,
Equations (A14) and (A15) may be recast into 1988.
R. R. A. Syms and R. G. Peall, The digital optical switch: analo-
M+PM = I gous directional coupler devices, Opt. Commun., pp. 235-238,
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D. Marcuse, Directional couplers made of nonidentical asymmet-
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[8] A. Hardy and W. Streifer, Coupled mode theory of parallel wave- is currentlv an Assistant Professor. His current re-
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[lo] S. L. Chuang, A coupled mode theory for multiwaveguide systems Brent E. Little (S86) was born in Montreal,
satisfying the reciprocity theorem and power conservation, J. Light- Quebec, Canada, in 1965. He received the
wave Technol., vol. LT-5, pp. 5-15, 1987. B.A.Sc. in electrical engineering from the Uni-
[ I l l H. A. Haus, W . P. Huang, and A. W. Snyder, Coupled-mode for- versity of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont., Canada. in
mulations, Opt. Lett., vol. 14, pp. 1222-1224, 1989. 1989. As an undergraduate he also worked on thin
[12] W. P. Huang and H. A. Haus, Power exchange in grating-assisted film optical waveguide research.
couplers, J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 7, pp. 920-924, 1989. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in
[13] W. P. Huang and J. W. V. Lit. Nonorthogonal coupled-mode the- electrical engineering at the University of Water-
ory of grating-assisted codirectional couplers, J. Lightwave Tech- loo. His interests include theoretical modeling of
nol., to be published. linear and nonlinear coupled-wave devices.