Asymptotic method for constructing a model of adiabatic guided modes of smoothly irregular integrated optical waveguides

The paper considers a class of smoothly irregular integrated optical multilayer waveguides, whose properties determine the characteristic features of guided propagation of monochromatic polarized light. An asymptotic approach to the description of such electromagnetic radiation is proposed, in which the solutions of Maxwell’s equations are expressed in terms of the solutions of a system of four ordinary differential equations and two algebraic equations for six components of the electromagnetic field in the zero approximation. The gradient of the phase front of the adiabatic guided mode satisfies the eikonal equation with respect to the effective refractive index of the waveguide for the given mode.The multilayer structure of waveguides allows one more stage of reducing the model to a homogeneous system of linear algebraic equations, the nontrivial solvability condition of which specifies the relationship between the gradient of the radiation phase front and the gradients of interfaces between thin homogeneous layers.In the final part of the work, eigenvalue and eigenvector problems (differential and algebraic), describing adiabatic guided modes are formulated. The formulation of the problem of describing the single-mode propagation of adiabatic guided modes is also given, emphasizing the adiabatic nature of the described approximate solution of Maxwell’s equations.