TY - JOUR A1 - Shamonin (Chamonine), Mikhail A1 - Lohmeyer, Manfred A1 - Hertel, Peter T1 - Analysis of power-dependent switching between radiatively coupled planar waveguides JF - Journal of Lightwave Technology N2 - Effective coupling between two remote optical waveguides without branching sections can be achieved in a three-guide system with multimode central waveguide. We investigate the nonlinear power switching of c.w. laser radiation by such radiatively coupled waveguides. It is shown that effective all-optical switches with spatially well separated input/output channels can be realized although the influence of multimode interference on the switching characteristics becomes more pronounced for increasing thickness of the central guide. Different coupling regimes are specified, and the changes in switching characteristics during the transformation from one regime to another is studied. Numerical calculations for the critical power are compared with an approximate analytical expression. It is also shown that, at a moderate input power, a small number of modes determines the switching behavior. KW - Electromagnetic coupling KW - Planar waveguide KW - Optical waveguides KW - Nonlinear optics KW - Optical coupling KW - Optical surface waves KW - Optical refraction KW - Optical variables control KW - Refractive index KW - Optical switches Y1 - 1997 UR - 1558-2213 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/50.588671 VL - 15 IS - 6 SP - 983 EP - 989 PB - IEEE CY - New York ER -