As they are compatible with on-chip integration, photonic-crystal (PhC) devices operating with slow light represent a promising solution for time-domain processing of optical signals. However, the slow-light transport is strongly impacted by random fabrication fluctuations, such as variations in hole sizes, shapes or locations, and since disorder is regarded as critical in practice, there has been significant effort to determine the induced extrinsic losses. Our current understanding of how does light actually propagate in real photonic-crystal waveguides (PhCWs) relies on perturbation approaches. Although intuitively sound, the latter are only valid in the weak-scattering regime, where the structural imperfections hardly affect the light propagation. Here we introduce a new Bloch mode scattering formalism that overcomes the present limitations of perturbation approaches, since it takes into account the inevitable multiple-scattering that leads to Anderson's localization in such waveguides.

Date Published: 22 January 2010
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 7608, Quantum Sensing and Nanophotonic Devices VII, 76080Q (22 January 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.837704

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7608:
Quantum Sensing and Nanophotonic Devices VII
Manijeh Razeghi; Rengarajan Sudharsanan; Gail J. Brown, Editor(s)