| In an optical communication system, a waveguide is used to channel a signal from one location to another. Often, the light propagating through one waveguide must be coupled into another waveguide of a different size and shape, a situation inherent to power loss. Losses occur when the two waveguides are not correctly aligned or when there is a mismatch between mode profiles, or beam distributions. Further losses occur when light from the transmitting waveguide is reflected off the facet of the receiving waveguide. In this thesis, the characteristics of light traveling between a dielectric slab waveguide and optical fiber are modeled and analyzed in order to determine the criteria for optimal coupling efficiency. In addition, the use of silicon V-grooves as a method to align an optical fiber to a slab waveguide is explored. |
