Oblique incidence of semi-guided planar waves on slab waveguide steps: effects of rounded edges

Oblique propagation of semi-guided waves across slab waveguide structures with bent corners is investigated. A critical angle can be defined beyond which all radiation losses are suppressed. Additionally an increase of the curvature radius of the bends also leads to low-loss configurations for incidence angles below that critical angle. A combination of two bent corner systems represents a step-like structure, behaving like a Fabry-Perot interferometer, with two partial reflectors separated by the vertical height between the horizontal slabs. We numerically analyse typical high-index-contrast Si/SiO2 structures for their reflectance and transmittance properties. When increasing the curvature radius the resonant effect becomes less relevant such that full transmittance is reached with less critical conditions on the vertical distance or the incidence angle. For practical interest 3-D problems are considered, where the structures are excited by the fundamental mode of a wide, shallow rib waveguide. High transmittance levels can be observed also for these 3-D configurations depending on the width of the rib.