Resonant evanescent excitation of OAM modes in a high-contrast circular step-index fiber

Resonant evanescent coupling can be utilized to selectively excite orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes of high angular order supported by a thin circular dielectric rod. Our 2.5-D hybrid-analytical coupled mode model combines the vectorial fields associated with the fundamental TE- and TM-modes of a standard silicon photonics slab waveguide, propagating at oblique angles with respect to the rod axis, and the hybrid modes supported by the rod. One observes an efficient resonant interaction in cases where the common axial wavenumber of the waves in the slab matches the propagation constant of one or more modes of the rod. For certain modes of high angular order, the incident wave is able to transfer its directionality to the field in the fiber, exciting effectively only one of a pair of degenerate OAM modes.