Conversion of optical modes in an absorbing magnetogyrotropic waveguide

The features of mode conversion in an absorbing magnetogyrotropic waveguide are investigated by a coupled-wave approach. It is shown that absorption leads to an additional contribution to the coupling of both identically and orthogonally polarized modes. A new waveguide regime for mode conversion, in which there is no oscillatory energy exchange between modes, is revealed. The possibility of controlling the damping of the total field in a waveguide by varying the orientation of the magnetization in the waveguide layer is demonstrated.