Photonic waveguiding structures with loss and gain
2011
Passive real-world waveguiding structures are inevitably lossy, and some of them, such as plasmonic waveguides,
exhibit even very strong attenuation. Losses can be compensated by including active components with gain. In this paper
we discuss properties of waveguiding structures with generally complex dielectric permittivity distributed across their
cross-section. In particular, we focus on the existence of modes that exhibit balance between loss and gain and that can
propagate unattenuated provided the suitable conditions are satisfied. Specifically, we examine power transmission in the
structures with a balance of loss and gain supporting lossless propagation of two modes. We demonstrate that when both
modes are excited simultaneously, the total transmitted power is not conserved as the modes propagate along the
waveguide. We also show that even if one of the modes propagates with gain, the maximum attainable transmitted power
is strongly influenced by back-reflections from the interface with the passive output waveguide. We also discuss the
conditions for the existence of an un-attenuated propagation of a confined surface mode supported by the gain/loss
nature of these photonic structures.
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