Characteristics of bound modes in coupled dielectric waveguides containing negative index media

Abstract

We investigate the characteristics of guided wave modes in planar coupled waveguides. In particular, we calculate the dispersion relations for TM modes in which one or both of the guiding layers consists of negative index media (NIM)-where the permittivity and permeability are both negative. We fi nd that the Poynting vector within the NIM waveguide axis can change sign and magnitude, a feature that is re fl ected in the dispersion curves.