Analysis and application of evanescent field enhancement in multi-layer arrow waveguide

In this research work, the spectral response and output coupling loss of a Multi-layer Anti-Resonant Reflecting Optical Waveguide (ARROW) are analyzed. The multi-layer ARROW waveguide is used for enhancing the evanescent field in low-index media. The fraction of the fundamental TE-like mode power in the low index material is used as a measure of the evanescent field enhancement. Also the sensitivity of the multi-layer ARROW waveguide is analyzed. The whole analysis is done using air as the low-index superstrate. The proposed structure can be used as an integrated mechano-optical waveguide on/off switch. MOL with higher-order approximation has been applied to find the modal profile and propagation constants of the eigen-modes of the basic ARROW and multi-layer ARROW waveguide. Output coupling problems, which involves the analysis of single and double discontinuity, are analyzed using the MOL. The Perfectly Matched Layer (PML) absorber is used to absorb the radiated fields from these discontinuities.