Naming Modes
Detailed discussion and analysis of modal propagation is well outside the scope of this book. However it is useful to understand some of the terminology used in the literature and standard texts. Later it will be seen that multiple modes form in any waveguide situation. This is not limited to fibre propagation but includes, for example, the behavior of light within planar waveguides and within a laser’s cavity etc.
Transverse Electric (TE) Modes
- TE modes exist when the electric field is perpendicular to the direction of propagation (the z-direction) but there is a small z-component of the magnetic field. Here most of the magnetic field is also perpendicular to the z-direction but a small z-component exists.
- This implies that the wave is not travelling quite straight but is reflecting from the sides of the waveguide. However, this also implies that the “ray” path is meridional (it passes through the centre or axis of the waveguide). It is not circular or skewed.
Transverse Magnetic (TM) Modes
- In a TM mode the magnetic field is perpendicular to the direction of propagation (z) but there is a small component of the electric field in this direction. Again this is only a small component of the electric field and most of it is perpendicular to the z-axis.
- Rather than talk about field components here it might be better to say that the orientation of the electric field is only a few degrees away from being perpendicular to the z-axis.
Transverse ElectroMagnetic (TEM) Modes
- In the TEM mode both the electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to the z-direction. The TEM mode is the only mode of a single-mode fibre.
Helical (Skew) Modes (HE and EH)
- In a fibre, most modes actually travel in a circular path of some kind. In this case components of both magnetic and electric fields are in the z-direction (the direction of propagation). These modes are designated as either HE or EH (H = magnetic) depending on which field contributes the most to the z-direction.
Linearly Polarised (LP) Modes
- It turns out that because the RI difference between core and cladding is quite small much can be simplified in the way we look at modes.23 In fibre propagation you can use a single-mode designation to approximate all of the others. Thus TE, TM, HE and EH modes can all be summarised and explained using only a single set of LP modes
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