Photonic transfer through subwavelength optical waveguides

¹ CEMES, UPR CNRS 8011 - 29 rue Jeanne Marvig, BP 4347 F-31055 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
² Laboratoire de Physique, Optique submicronique, ESA 5027 CNRS Université de Bourgogne BP 400 - 21011 Dijon, France

Received: 23 July 1998
Accepted: 21 October 1998

Abstract

Optical tunneling effect through dielectric junctions with subwavelength transverse sizes has been demonstrated some years ago. In this letter, we demonstrate how similar effects can be exploited to perform photonic transfer through a subwavelength optical wave guide (SOW) by structuring its optical index along the direction of propagation. The optical transmittance of the SOW is computed self-consistently in direct space through the numerical solution of a Dyson equation. We apply this scheme to investigate the optical properties of different SOW architectures. Even under total internal reflection, in which the light is coupled to the SOW by an evanescent mode, an efficient optical transfer can be expected.