Planar laser formed from diffraction-coupled waveguides

A planar laser is proposed and investigated theoretically. Its resonator consists of diffraction-coupled regular active and corrugated passive waveguides. An analysis is made for optical waveguides with arbitrary smoothly inhomogeneous transverse distributions of the permittivity. The condition for the generation of surface H and E waves is formulated. Calculations are reported of the dependence of the threshold gain and of the phase mismatch parameter on the resonant coupling coefficient and on other quantities.