Spectral parameter power series analysis of isotropic planarly layered waveguides

This work addresses the analysis of an isotropic planarly layered waveguide consisting of an inhomogeneous core that is enclosed between two homogeneous layers forming the cladding. The analysis relies on an auxiliary one-dimensional spectral problem that is intimately linked with the scalar wave equation for planarly layered media. We construct the Green function of the waveguide as an expansion involving the eigenfunctions of the continuous and the discrete spectrum of the auxiliary problem. From the eigenvalues of the discrete spectrum, we calculate the allowed propagation constants of the guided modes. The Spectral Parameter Power Series (SPPS) method [Math. Method Appl. Sci. 2010;33: 459–468] leads us to analytic expressions for the eigenfunctions of the auxiliary problem in the form of power series of the spectral parameter. In addition, we obtain an SPPS representation for the dispersion relation without making any kind of approximation or discretisation to the core of the waveguide. The SPPS analysis here presented is well suited for its numerical implementation, since all these series can be truncated due to their uniform convergence.