Coupling and propagation losses in slow light (ng->100) photonic crystal waveguides

Two of the key aspects for operating photonic crystal waveguides in slow light regime are discussed: coupling and propagation losses. We show that a variety of techniques exist that allow coupling into the slow light regime with high efficiency and highlight that the nature of the slow mode (being a Bloch mode) needs to be taken into account. As to propagation losses, we show that the commonly accepted square dependence of the losses on the group velocity does not universally hold, and that a regime of low loss operation up to group indices of 30-40 exists.

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