Experimental observation of slow mode dispersion in photonic crystal coupled-cavity waveguides

We experimentally investigate the dispersion curve of an integrated silicon-on-insulator coupled-cavity waveguide in a photonic crystal environment using a technique based on far-field imaging. We show that a chain of eight coupled cavities of a moderate Q factor can form a continuous dispersion band characterized by extremely flat dispersion and a group index of 105 +/- 20 within a 2.6 nm wavelength range. The experimental results are well reproduced by theoretical calculations based on the guided-mode expansion method. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America