Group-index and resonant field enhancement in a symmetric double-sided grated waveguide

A numerical study has been carried out by means of the Green's function method to explore possible performance improvements of a simple grated waveguide (GWg) by the variations of its grated structure. It is shown that a GWg featuring symmetric two-sided grated structure of 16 teeth with a 60nm groove depth and having a symmetric refractive index profile with a relatively large contrast between the grated and ungrated layers is capable of delivering largely improved device performance compared to that achieved previously with a one-sided grating of 40nm groove depth and asymmetric index profile. The improvement is characterized by a remarkable 8-fold and 15-fold increase in the group index and the maximum field intensity, respectively, at the first resonance wavelength above the upper band edge (shorter wavelength), while relatively less improvement is found at the first resonance wavelength below the lower band edge (longer wavelength). It is shown that more than 20% further improvement can be obtained by an appropriate shifting of the two innermost adjacent grating teeth in the case of the 40nm groove depth. Apart from that, the result also reveals an interesting and remarkable correlation between the variations of the group index and the confined energy. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America