Determination of complex modes in photonic crystal waveguides using the phase variation in characteristic coefficients.

An efficient frequency-domain method, the phase variation monitoring (PVM) method, is proposed to determine the electromagnetic eigenmodes in two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides. The proposed method is based on monitoring the reflection and transmission coefficients of incident plane waves. It is successfully applied to an illustrative line-defect photonic crystal waveguide and proved to be capable of calculating the in-plane leakage through the finite-size photonic crystal surrounding the line-defect. Calculation of the leakage loss is not only important for proper understanding of wave propagation within the defect but also for its significant role in applications of photonic structures.