Kazuya HAYATA

Department of Social Information, Sapporo Gakuin University, Ebetsu, 069 Japan

(Received March 4, 1996; Accepted April 30, 1996)

In an attempt to apply the fuzzy set theory to optics a fuzzy entropy [A. De Luca and S. Termini: Inf. Control 20 (1972) 301] is used as a measure of optical field concentration in transverse dimensions. Unlike the Shannon's information entropy, the fuzzy entropy is based on a nonprobabilistic concept and therefore can be used for characterizing the strength of classical wave localization.

Key words: fuzzy entropy, optical waveguide, beam propagation, guided-mode characterization, transverse field localization