Semi-Analytical Approach versus Finite Element Method for Analysis of Propagation Properties in Rectangular Waveguides: Silica-Titania Technological Platform

Abstract

This work explicitly demonstrates a semi-analytical effective index approximation (EIA) approach for the description of the propagation properties of rib and ridge waveguides. By using the example of waveguides realized on a low-cost silica-titania (SiO2:TiO2) technological platform, we present that EIA may be successfully applied for the approximate determination of modal effective indices and single mode propagation conditions. All obtained results have been confirmed to be convergent with the finite element method (FEM) simulations at low relative error. Due to the tremendously fast execution time of EIA simulations in comparison with the FEM solver, we believe that the presented approach may be applied in a preliminary step of designing functional blocks in new and existing photonic integrated circuit technologies, which often require complex and multi-parameter calculations.