Modal transmission-line is utilized to analyze the power coupling of optical directional coupler composed by two parallel guiding slabs. By defining a coupling efficiency .eta. amenable to rigorous supermodes and boundary conditions of modal functions, we evaluate the power transfer for TE mode of gainy coupler. The results reveal that optimized power exchange occurs at a novel wavelength .lambda.$_{op}$ , which is generally different from minimum gap .lambda.$_{min}$ between rigorous modes and phase-matching condition .lambda.$_{ph}$ .