Characteristics of grating-assisted couplers

Characteristics of grating-assisted coupling between two parallel waveguides are analyzed. The influence of the grating parameters, such as groove depth, duty cycle, and refractive indices is considered Chirped and parallel gratings as well, as gratings with sinusoidal envelope periodicity are also addressed. The analysis is based on a unified coupled-mode formalism, with the transfer-matrix method as a general solution technique. It is shown how to modify the grating parameters to provide a specific spectral response (reflectivity and transmission coefficients). As an example, two parallel gratings are used to obtain a similar response to a single grating of double length. The location of the grating between the two waveguides as well as the light-wave injection direction are very important. The presented methods and effects may be useful for design and analysis in the fields of optical communications, sensing, and processing. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 050.1950, 050.2770, 130.2790, 230.7390.