Large delay-bandwidth product and tuning of slow light pulse in photonic crystal coupled waveguide

This paper reports two advances in a slow light device consisting of chirped photonic crystal slab coupled waveguide on SOI substrate. One is concerning the delay-bandwidth product, indicating the buffering capacity of the device. We experimentally evaluated a record high value of 57 (a 40 ps delay and a 1.4 THz bandwidth). We also observed similar to 1 ps wide optical pulse transmission in the cross-correlation measurement. Regarding the pulse as a signal and considering the broadening of the pulse width due to the imperfect dispersion compensation in the device, storage of more than 12 signal bits was confirmed. The other is a wide-range tuning of the pulse delay. We propose a technique for externally controlling the chirping to permit variable delay. We demonstrate tuning of the pulse delay up to 23 ps, corresponding to a similar to 7 mm extension of the free space length. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.