A coupled mode formulation by reciprocity and a variational principle

Abstract

A coupled mode formulation for parallel dielectric waveguides is presented via two methods: a reciprocity theorem and a variational principle. In the first method, a generalized reciprocity relation for two sets of field solutions(E^{(1)}, H^{(1)})and(E^{(2)}, H^{(2)})satisfying Maxwell's equation and the boundary conditions in two different media\epsilon^{(1)}(x,y)and\epsilon^{(2)}(x,y), respectively, is derived. Based on the generalized reciprocity theorem, we then formulate the coupled mode equations. The second method using a variational principle is also presented for a general waveguide system which can be lossy. The results of the variational principle can also be shown to be identical to those from the reciprocity theorem. The exact relations governing the "conventional" and the new coupling coefficients are derived. It is shown analytically that our formulation satisfies the reciprocity theorem and power conservation exactly, while the conventional theory violates the power conservation and reciprocity theorem by as much as 55 percent and the Hardy-Streifer theory by 0.033 percent, for example.