Effect of perfectly matched layer reflection coefficient on modal analysis of leaky waveguide modes.

The reflection coefficient is one important parameter of the perfectly matched layer (PML). Here we investigate its effect on the modal analysis of leaky waveguide modes by examining three different leaky waveguide structures, i.e., the holey fiber, the air-core terahertz pipe waveguide, and the gain-guided and index-antiguided slab waveguide. Numerical results reveal that the typical values 10(-8) ~10(-12) are inadequate for obtaining the imaginary part of the complex propagation constant, and the suggested reflection coefficient would be much smaller, for example, 10(-50) or 10(-100). With such a small coefficient, both the computational window size and the PML thickness can be significantly reduced without loss of stability. Moreover, in some cases, the modal field profiles can only be accurately obtained with such a small coefficient.