ABSTRACT
Thekeen interest in slow light in nanostructured dielectrics ismotivated by the fact that slow light adds functionality to a material by structuring alone. Unlike the EIT-based schemes discussed elsewhere in this book, nanostructuring is wavelength-independent, i.e., it can be adjusted to any wavelength of interest within the transparency window of the material. Furthermore, it enhances the weak lightmatter interaction in a material that may be of interest otherwise, such as silicon, and it adds another degree of freedom to already highly electro optic or nonlinear materials such as, chalcogenide glasses [1]. Optically linear effects such as gain, thermo optic and electro optic interaction scale with the slowdown factor, whereas nonlinear effects may scale with its square [2,3] which we shall discuss in more detail.
