title: Fundamental limits to slow-light arrayed-waveguide-grating spectrometers.
abstract: We present an analytical model that describes the limiting spectral performance of arrayed-waveguide-grating (AWG) spectrometers that incorporate slow-light methods. We show that the loss-limited spectral resolution of a slow-light grating-based spectrometer scales as the loss-group-index ratio of the waveguide array. We further show that one can achieve a spectral resolution of a few GHz using currently available slow-light photonic crystal waveguides while greatly shrinking the on-chip footprint of the spectrometer.
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
authors.forename: Zhimin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Boyd
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*