ABSTRACT
PhC waveguides are structures typically formed by a line defect in an otherwise nominally perfect (disorder-free) PhC lattice. Waveguides are key components in many optical devices, as they allow one to route light from one location to another. Any platform technology involving PhCs would require a waveguide. Semiconductor-based PhC slab waveguides are of particular interest because they can be fabricated using high-quality etching and lithography techniques, and the high refractive index results in guided modes with very strong transverse spatial connement, essentially trapping light to a spatial scale that is much smaller than the wavelength of the light. PhC waveguides have the intriguing characteristic of often exhibiting a region of slow-light propagation [5], which has potential applications as an optical delay line [6] and for tailoring the emission properties of embedded light sources such as quantum dots [2,7,8]. Slow light also leads to enhanced nonlinearities [9].
