Oblique incidence of semi-guided waves on rectangular slab waveguide discontinuities: A vectorial QUEP solver

The incidence of thin-film-guided, in-plane unguided waves at oblique angles on straight discontinuities of dielectric slab waveguides, an early problem of integrated optics, is being re-considered. The 3-D frequency domain Maxwell equations reduce to a parametrized inhomogeneous vectorial problem on a 2-D computational domain, with transparent-influx boundary conditions. We propose a rigorous vectorial solver based on simultaneous expansions into polarized local slab eigenmodes along the two orthogonal cross section coordinates (quadridirectional eigenmode propagation QUEP). The quasi-analytical scheme is applicable to configurations with — in principle — arbitrary cross section geometries. Examples for a high-contrast facet of an asymmetric slab waveguide, for the lateral excitation of a channel waveguide, and for a step discontinuity between slab waveguides of different thicknesses are discussed.