Scattering Loss of Photonic Crystal Waveguides and Nanocavities Induced by Structural Disorder

We achieve very low loss (2 dB/cm) photonic crystal slab waveguides by using improved electron beam lithography. The loss of our sample is largely determined by lithography-induced disorder, which is supported by a theory based on the photon Green function formalism. We find that this disorder effect is also significant in high quality factor nanocavities.