Abstract
Slow light propagated through a photonic crystal with a nematic liquid crystal-filled cavity has been simulated and presented. Both slow and fast modes propagate in the waveguide. Design efforts were made to adjust the group velocities of the propagating modes. Numerical studies show that the nematic liquid crystal provides designers an additional degree of freedom to tune the device by using external perturbations such as applying heat or electric field. Comparative studies have also been done to see the performance of the devices built in two different material platforms (silicon and InP). The device can be used as an economic and efficient functional materials system for building robust integrated photonic devices that have the ability to slow, store, and process light pulses. (C) 2014 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)