Slow light in photonic crystals

Abstract

In this work we demonstrate an interesting opportunity to decrease drastically the group velocity of light in two-dimensional photonic crystals constructed form materials with large dielectric constant without dispersion ( ε d∼100). The group velocity of light in the crystals can be lowered up to 10 −5–10 −4 c ( c is velocity of light in free space) in a wide range of the Brillouin zone. We propose a simple and general explanation why that should appear in photonic crystals with large dielectric constants.