Three-dimensional vectorial analysis of waveguide structures with the method of lines

The method of lines (MoL) a special eigenmode algorithm has been proven as an efficient tool for the analysis of waveguide structures in optics and microwaves. The electric and magnetic fields in the cross-section and their derivatives with respect to the cross-section coordinates are discretized with finite differences (FD) while analytic expressions are used in the direction of propagation. The numerical effort for analyzing three-dimensional structures with a two-dimensional discretization can be very high, particularly if vectorial characteristics have to be taken into account. In this paper we introduce a reduction of the eigenmode system to keep the effort moderate. Only a certain number of eigenmodes is determined with the Arnoldi algorithm. We will show then how the electric field distribution of the eigenmodes can be computed from the magnetic field and vice versa. To match the fields at the interfaces we introduce left eigenvectors which are the inverse of the field distributions. The formulas were applied to the analysis of a polarization converter consisting of a periodical perturbation of a waveguide structure. A rotation angle greater than 80degrees was determined.