Abstract

In this paper we report a general procedure to obtain a set of universal diagrams summarizing the properties of the stationary nonlinear waves guided by slab optical waveguides made on intensity-dependent dielectric media. Our goal is to show that a great deal of the information, relative to the stationary properties and stability of the nonlinear waves guided by different structures, can be straightforwardly obtained from the V — b Universal diagrams. Here V and b are the well-known normalized waveguide thickness and effective index of guided solutions, respectively. The idea behind a V — b diagram is to partition parameter space into regions of similar waveguiding properties, in such a way that critical points may be easily read off from the plots, without solving the nonlinear wave equation. The critical lines in the diagrams separate regions of forbidden values from those corresponding to different allowed guided waves, both stable and unstable.

© 1993 Optical Society of America