Rainbow trapping in one-dimensional chirped photonic crystals composed of alternating dielectric slabs

One-dimensional chirped photonic crystals composed of alternating dielectric slabs are proposed to realize rainbow trapping. We theoretically and numerically demonstrate that not only significantly reduced group velocity can be achieved in the proposed chirped structures, but different wavelengths can be localized in different spatial positions, indicating trapped rainbow. Our results imply a feasible way to slow or even trap light in simple systems, which can be used for optical buffer, memory, data processor and filter, sorter, etc. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.