Losses in engineered slow light photonic crystal waveguides

The authors report on the study of propagation losses in engineered slow light photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides. By modifying the rows of holes adjacent to the defect, it has been shown that dispersion can be reduced to manageable levels, enabling promising applications, such as optical buffers and for increasing light matter interactions. Loss then remains as the key issue facing slow light photonic crystals.