Analysis and Design of Bent Optical Channel Waveguides by Vector-Wave Mode-Matching Method

Reduction of the radiation loss is essential for the design of integrated-optic devices involving bent waveguides. For waveguide devices requiring accurate phase control, the effect of bending-induced phase-constant change also becomes important. The vector-wave mode-matching method is extended for the analysis of both loss and phase characteristics in general integrated-optic bent channel waveguides. For a typical Mach-Zehnder interferometric filter in silica-glass waveguide, the calculated phase-constant change is used in the waveguide path-length commpensation which results in excellent agreement between design and measurement.