Slow light with low group-velocity dispersion at the edge of photonic graphene

Abstract

We theoretically study the light propagation at the zigzag edges of a honeycomb photonic crystal (PC), or photonic graphene. It is found that the corresponding edge states have a sinusoidal dispersion similar to those found in PC coupled resonator optical waveguides [CROWs; M. Notomi et al., Nature Photon. 2, 741 (2008)]. The sinusoidal dispersion curve can be made very flat by carefully tuning edge parameters. As a result, low group velocity and small group velocity dispersion can be simultaneously obtained for light propagating at the zigzag edge of photonic graphene. Compared with PC CROWs, our slow-light system exhibits no intrinsic radiation loss and has a larger group velocity bandwidth product. Our results could find applications in on-chip optical buffers and enhanced light-matter interaction.