Disorder-induced high-Q cavities in photonic crystal waveguides

摘要

We demonstrate experimentally that random departure from high-index-contrast periodicity in photonic crystal waveguides gives rise to spectral features that bear signatures of Anderson localization. Disorder-induced high-Q cavities are observed in a narrow frequency band close to the guided mode's cut-off where the light propagates with slow group velocity. Spectrally distinct quasi-states with Qs as high as ～250,000 are distributed at random locations along the waveguide and can find applications for example in optical sensing systems.