Accurate vectorial finite element mode solver for magneto-optic and anisotropic waveguides

In this work, a dielectric waveguide mode solver is presented considering a general nonreciprocal permittivity tensor. The proposed method allows us to investigate important cases of practical interest in the field of integrated optics, such as magneto-optical isolators and anisotropic waveguides. Unlike the earlier developed mode solver, our approach allows for the precise computation of both forward and backward propagating modes in the nonreciprocal case, ensuring high accuracy and computational efficiency. As a result, the nonreciprocal loss/phase shift can be directly computed, avoiding the use of the perturbation method. To compute the electromagnetic modes, the Rayleigh-Ritz functional is derived for the non-self adjoint case, it is discretized using the node-based finite element method and the penalty function is added to remove the spurious solutions. The resulting quadratic eigenvalue problem is linearized and solved in terms of the propagation constant for a given frequency (i.e., γ–formulation). The main benefits of this formulation are that it avoids the time-consuming iterations and preserves the matrix sparsity. Finally, the method is used to study two examples of integrated optical isolators based on nonreciprocal phase shift and nonreciprocal loss effect, respectively. The developed method is then compared with the perturbation approach and its simplified formulation based on semivectorial approximation.