Through the introduction of an imaging multimode interference device in an
integrated optical circuit, such performance degradations as lateral waveguide
field oscillations and backreflections may be suppressed. The suppression of lateral
waveguide field oscillations (that may occur due to misaligned optical coupling),
in particular, can significantly reduce variations in the power splitting ratio
of an optical power splitting structure, such as those employed by a Mach-Zehnder modulator.