Coupling of partially coherent light into planar waveguides

Edge coupling of a focused partially coherent Gaussian Schell-model beam into a planar dielectric waveguide is examined. The incident field is decomposed into a sum of coherent modes that are expressed as a discrete superposition of plane-wave components. A model based on the rigorous diffraction theory of gratings is used to replace the waveguide with a corresponding periodic multilayer structure to determine the coupling efficiencies. The results obtained with the quasi-rigorous approach are compared with the predictions of the overlap integral method.