Reconstruction of extraordinary refractive index profiles of optical planar waveguides with single or double modes fabricated by O2+ ion implantation into lithium niobate

A method named intensity calculation method (ICM), which is based on beam propagation method (BPM) and image processing, was carried out to reconstruct the extraordinary refractive index profile (RIP) of single-mode planar waveguide in lithium niobate (LiNbO3), which was fabricated by multi-energy megaelectron-volt (MeV) O2+ ion implantation. In addition, it has been proved reasonable that the alternation of extraordinary refractive index induced by ion implantation into LiNbO3 is mainly due to the degradation of polarization and reduction of material physical density. As a result, the possible extraordinary RIP of the double-mode planar waveguide could be reconstructed using BPM according to such a hypothesis and the calculated guiding mode values. The end-fire coupling and m-line arrangements were carried out to obtain the near-field modal patterns and dark-mode spectra of waveguides, respectively.