Modeling mode characteristics of transverse anisotropic waveguides using a vector pseudospectral approach

I extend the full vector pseudospectral-based eigenvalue scheme, based on the transverse magnetic field components, to analyze the mode behaviors of dielectric optical waveguides with transverse, nondiagonal anisotropy. One of the principal axes of the anisotropic materials is thus constrained to point in the longitudinal direction of the waveguide. I expand the guided mode fields in the interior subdomains with finite extent by using Chebyshev polynomials and those in the exterior subdomains with semi-infinite extent by using Laguerre-Gaussian functions with an accurately determined scaling factor. This study analyzes two examples: (1) the circularly-polarized modes of a magneto-optical raised strip waveguide and (2) the guided mode patterns of a nematic liquid-crystal channel waveguide under different orientations of the liquid-crystal molecule. The comparison of the numerical results with those from the vector finite difference approach demonstrates that my numerical approach has a higher computational efficiency and requires less computer memory. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America