MEASUREMENT OF THE TEMPORAL DELAY OF A LIGHT PULSE THROUGH A ONE-DIMENSIONAL PHOTONIC CRYSTAL

We measure a maximum group delay of 22.6 ps for a light pulse propagating through a 1 cm long fiber Bragg grating when the frequency of the light is tuned near the band edge of the grating. Our measurements are performed in the time domain with single picosecond resolution using waelength-tunable pulses of 0.5 nm bandwidth spec- trally sliced from a mode-locked laser. Our experimental results are qualitatiely confirmed by our numerical simulations. Promising applica- tions include optical delay elements for phased-array radar and en- codersrdecoders in spread-spectrum code-diision multiple-access sys- tems. Q 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 20: 17)21, 1999.