title: Optimizing photonic crystal waveguides for on-chip spectroscopic applications.
abstract: We investigate the applicability of photonic crystal waveguides to high-resolution on-chip spectrometers. We argue that the figure of merit by which their performance should be gauged is not the group index bandwidth product, which photonic crystal waveguides are usually optimized for, but the working finesse, which relates to the maximum number of spectral lines resolvable by a slow-light spectrometer. Through numerical simulation, we show that a properly-optimized photonic crystal waveguide could form the basis of a spectrometer with a spectral resolution of 0.04 nm over a 12.5 nm bandwidth near 1550 nm and with a footprint six times smaller than a conventional spectrometer.
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA. liapis@optics.rochester.edu
authors.forename: Andreas C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Liapis
authors.forename: Zhimin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Boyd
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D017785:Photons; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*