Abstract
An approach for modeling wave propagation in graded index waveguides within the validity range of geometrical optics is presented. The method is based on wavefront construction in conjunction with dynamic ray tracing, which are both well known for seismic applications. The objective of this paper is to apply this formulation to the analysis of wave propagation in highly multimode optical waveguides whose index changes are small within the scale of a few wavelengths of the guided light and whose lengths are very large compared to the wavelength. In addition the method is applied to bulk optical components like the Luneburg lens.