Polarized-ray optics in fibres (Invited Paper)

Abstract

The ray optics for use in fibre communication systems is developed starting from the Maupertuis' law of stationary action, which is termed “modal-ray optics” and is different from the much better known Hamilton's optics based on the dynamical law of action. The reader is cautioned not to confuse the two different physical bases, although one may find a close similarity between the resulting formulae. The basic concepts of modal ray do not contain the time describing the dynamical motion of light such as the motion of a light pulse, so that the dynamical properties, if necessary, are discussed in the spectral domain or the complex space coordinates. The quantization rule by Keller is used to determine the modal states of the ray fields, which is well suited to the modal-ray optics. It is shown that for certain specific fibres, the theory provides the well-known results deduced from other theories. The polarization of light is also described by means of the above mentioned optics.

Indexing terms:

• Polarized ray optics
• Modal ray optics