Improvement of delay-bandwidth product in photonic crystal slow-light waveguides

We report new results about the improvement of delay-bandwidth product in photonic crystal slow light waveguides. Previous studies have obtained large delay-bandwidth product at the price of small average group index. It is pointed out here that the radius and the distance between the two boundary rows of holes have a key contribution for delay-bandwidth product. We show the possibility of improving this factor of merit meanwhile maintaining the same group index. We succeed in improving normal delay-bandwidth product from 0.15 to 0.35, keeping at the same time the group index unchanged at high value of 90. This optimization approach may be applicable for previous flat band slow light devices. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America