Slow light in tapered slot photonic crystal waveguide

A slotted single-mode photonic crystal waveguide with a linear tapered slot is presented to realize slow light, whose dispersion curve is shifted by changing the slot width. When the slot width is reduced, the band curve shifts in the tapered structure, and the group velocity of light approach zero at the cut-off frequency. Therefore, different frequency components of the guided light are slowed down even local-ized along the propagation direction inside a tapered slot photonic crystal waveguide. Furthermore, this structure can confine slow light-wave in a narrow slot waveguide, which may effectively enhance the interaction between slow light and the low-index wave-guiding materials filled in the slot. In addition, this tapered slot structure can be used to compensate group velocity dispersion of slow light by mod-ifying the structure, thus opening the opportunity for ultra-wide bandwidth slow light.