Grating-assisted superresolution of slow waves in Fourier space

Abstract

We present a far-field optical technique allowing measurements of the dispersion relation of electromagnetic fields propagating under the light cone in photonic nanostructures. It relies on the use of a one-dimensional grating to probe the evanescent tail of the guided field in combination with a high-numerical-aperture Fourier-space imaging setup. A high-resolution spectroscopy of the far-field emission diagram allows us to accurately and efficiently determine the dispersion curve and the group-index dispersion of planar photonic crystal waveguides operating in the slow-light regime.