Design of tapered waveguides for improved output coupling

Journal Article · Wed Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · IEEE Photonics Technology Letters (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/68.257194· OSTI ID:5715119

Hadley, G R ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Waveguides whose width increases linearly with distance are shown to be an excellent means for decreasing the beam divergence of the guided mode and thus improving output coupling, provided the taper angle is carefully chosen. Such tapered waveguides can provide nearly diffraction-limited output while incurring virtually no energy penalty. Beam propagation calculations together with a dimensional analysis allow the first quantitative prediction of output beam divergence for a wide range of input parameters. Performance is shown to be optimal for taper angles of about 0.4 times the input beam's full width at half maximum (FWHM) divergence angle, subsequently reducing the latter by a factor of five.

• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5715119
• Journal Information: IEEE Photonics Technology Letters (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Photonics Technology Letters (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States) Vol. 5:9; ISSN 1041-1135; ISSN IPTLEL
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
426000* -- Engineering-- Components
Electron Devices & Circuits-- (1990-)
BEAM OPTICS
BEAM TRANSPORT
COUPLING
DESIGN
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PERFORMANCE
WAVEGUIDES