4.6 Article

All linear optical devices are mode converters

Journal

OPTICS EXPRESS
Volume 20, Issue 21, Pages 23985-23993

Publisher

OPTICAL SOC AMER
DOI: 10.1364/OE.20.023985

Keywords

-

Categories

Funding

  1. Duke University under DARPA InPho program
  2. AFOSR Robust and Complex On-Chip Nanophotonics MURI

Ask authors/readers for more resources

We show that every linear optical component can be completely described as a device that converts one set of orthogonal input modes, one by one, to a matching set of orthogonal output modes. This result holds for any linear optical structure with any specific variation in space and/or time of its structure. There are therefore preferred orthogonal mode converter basis sets of input and output functions for describing any linear optical device, in terms of which the device can be described by a simple diagonal operator. This result should help us understand what linear optical devices we can and cannot make. As illustrations, we use this approach to derive a general expression for the alignment tolerance of an efficient mode coupler and to prove that loss-less combining of orthogonal modes is impossible. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available