We modeled, simulated and experimentally observed efficient slow light coupling to internally corrugated slot Bragg grating (ICSBG) waveguide on a silicon-on-insulator platform. A short step taper is utilized to evanescently couple to the slow light mode near the stopband edge, resulting in minimization of Fabry–Perot reflections due to group index mismatch and a minimum slow light coupling enhancement of ∼1 dB. This is important as it results in a lower insertion loss ICSBG waveguide, which is capable of low loss slow light propagation and therefore is an attractive option as a phase shifter structure for an on-chip slow light enhanced electro-optic modulator or integrated optic sensor applications.

Silicon slot waveguide Bragg gratings have been designed, fabricated and the experimental data has been analyzed for its slow light properties. Slow light with a group index of 12.38 at a wavelength near 1555 nm and having a low propagation loss of 5.1 dB/mm has been determined for internally corrugated slot waveguide Bragg gratings on a silicon-on-insulator platform. The combination of slow light and low propagation loss make the internally corrugated slot waveguide Bragg gratings especially attractive as a phase shifter section for low drive voltage, high speed and compact electro-optic modulators.

The theoretical background to calculate the effective index tuning using the ultrafast electro-optic Kerr effect and a design of slot waveguide geometry are presented. Analysis of the slot waveguide ring resonator with silicon nanocrystals as the active medium to implement the CMOS compatible electro-optic Kerr effect modulator indicates a modulation bandwidth of 51 GHz, therefore, allowing for 90 Gb/s data rate transmission, and a low energy consumption of 22.99 fJ/bit.

We report on the comparison of a slot waveguide ring resonator and a Fabry-Perot resonator designed using a phase shifted Bragg grating for use in the silicon-based DC Kerr electro-optic switch.

The combination of silicon and nanotechnology offers the possibility to design ultrafast silicon electro-optic switches with speeds of the order of 100 GHz. The design procedure for an ultrafast silicon electro-optic switch with the addition of photonic crystals is presented. The material medium selected for propagation of the optical signal through the switch is silicon nanocrystals in silica. A patterned slot waveguide with one-dimensional photonic crystals is proposed as the preferred slow light waveguide to be used in the design of the electro-optic switch. The ultrafast quadratic electro-optic effect or Kerr effect is the physical effect utilized, and its analysis for slot waveguides is discussed. The optical structure analysis of the electro-optic switch using a ring resonator is presented and it is shown theoretically that the use of a slow light waveguide in the ring resonator can reduce the required externally applied electric field or the radius of the ring resonator.