Abstract

We introduce here a new class of waveguides, chirowaveguides, which exhibit some novel and unique properties owing to electromagnetic chirality. These waveguides consist of cylindrical waveguides containing chiral, or optically active, materials. Owing to the optical activity of the material inside the waveguide, several unique and novel features are associated with this type of guided-wave structure. It is shown that these waveguides cannot support individual TE, TM, or TEM modes and that they exhibit mode bifurcation in hybrid modes. As an illustrative example the parallel-plate chirowaveguide is analyzed, and the corresponding dispersion relations and Brillouin diagrams are obtained. Some of the novel applications of chirowaveguides to integrated-optical devices and optical communications systems are presented.

© 1989 Optical Society of America

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