Corrugated thin-film waveguides have played a significant role in the development of optical devices, including distributed feedback lasers (DFB), waveguide couplers, and optical filters. The objective of the proposed research is to develop and test a new design technique for aperiodic corrugated waveguide (CWG) filters. This technique will be based on second order Fourier synthesis methods, which have been recently applied to the design of multilayer dielectric stacks. Using these methods, aperiodic CWG filters will be designed to satisfy specified spectral transmittance and reflectance characteristics. The devices will be subsequently fabricated in glass waveguides, and their characteristics will be measured using a tunable dye laser. The fabrication of some of the proposed filters is unique in that attempts will be made to vary both the corrugation depth and the period along the guide. The proposed research will also permit the accuracy of several important propagation analysis techniques (for aperiodic structures) to be experimentally compared. This comparison will be based on the measured spectral transmittance of the fabricated devices.
