Abstract

The physics and applications of slow light are attracting increasing attention in recent years. Dramatic reduction of the pulse velocity by orders of magnitude was demonstrated experimentally in photonic structures with periodic modulation of refractive index [1]. The benefits of slow-light regime include potential applications for optical delay lines and enhanced light-mater interactions. Whereas the key principles of achieving the individual slow-light states have been established, new concepts for light manipulation in photonic structures can be explored based on interactions between multiple optical waves if their velocities are reduced simultaneously. In this work, we demonstrate theoretically and observe experimentally, for the first time to our knowledge, efficient realization of slow-light regime for several optical modes in the same frequency region.

© 2009 IEEE