Experimental realization of wide-mode-area slow light modes in valley photonic crystal heterostructure waveguides

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the experimental creation of wide-mode-area slow-light modes in valley photonic crystal heterostructure waveguides, enabling high-power on-chip photonic devices through mode width tunability.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to realize and control wide-mode-area slow-light modes in valley photonic crystal heterostructures using gapless photonic graphene layers.

Findings

Wide-mode-area slow-light modes achieved in VPhC heterostructures.

Mode widths are tunable by adjusting the number of photonic graphene layers.

Observation of radiation and out-of-plane scattering confirms mode characteristics.

Abstract

We experimentally realized wide-mode-area slow-light modes in valley photonic crystals (VPhCs) heterostructure waveguides. The waveguides are fabricated on a silicon slab by inserting gapless photonic graphene layers with varying widths and modifying the unit cell spacing near the domain walls. By reducing the spacing between unit cells at the domain boundaries, slow-light guided modes are achieved in VPhCs heterostructure waveguides. The presence of wide-mode-area modes is verified by observing the radiation in light propagation of leaky guided modes above the light line. To characterize guided modes below the light line, we introduce air-slot terminations to induce out-of-plane scattering and measure intensity profiles. The results show that the mode widths are tunable for both fast-light and slow-light modes in VPhCs heterostructure waveguides by adjusting the number of photonic graphene layers. The ability to support wide-mode-area slow-light modes in VPhC heterostructures offers promising opportunities for the development of high-power, on-chip photonic integrated devices.