Slow-Light-Enhanced Nonlinear Characteristics in Slot Waveguides Composed of Photonic Crystal Nanobeam Cavities

We investigate slow-light-enhanced nonlinear characteristics in slot waveguides composed of photonic crystal (PC) nanobeam cavities. To evaluate the effective nonlinear coefficient, numerical simulations are performed by using 3-D vector finite-element method for periodic waveguide analysis. Results show that the maximum nonlinear coefficient of 11 600 m^-1W^-1 is obtained by optimizing waveguide width and height. This high optical nonlinearity is realized owing to strong light confinement at slotted geometry and small group velocity in PC nanobeam cavities. Also, we show that there exists tradeoff between the effective nonlinear coefficient and the bandwidth in the case of changing one-period length of the proposed structure.