Experimental observation of slow mode dispersion in photonic crystal coupled-cavity waveguides

Opt Lett. 2009 Feb 1;34(3):359-61. doi: 10.1364/ol.34.000359.

Abstract

We experimentally investigate the dispersion curve of an integrated silicon-on-insulator coupled-cavity waveguide in a photonic crystal environment using a technique based on far-field imaging. We show that a chain of eight coupled cavities of a moderate Q factor can form a continuous dispersion band characterized by extremely flat dispersion and a group index of 105+/-20 within a 2.6 nm wavelength range. The experimental results are well reproduced by theoretical calculations based on the guided-mode expansion method.