Slow light bimodal interferometry in one-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides

Strongly influenced by the advances in the semiconductor industry, the miniaturization and integration of optical circuits into smaller devices has stimulated considerable research efforts in recent decades. Among other structures, integrated interferometers play a prominent role in the development of photonic devices for on-chip applications ranging from optical communication networks to point-of-care analysis instruments. However, it has been a long-standing challenge to design extremely short interferometer schemes, as long interaction lengths are typically required for a complete modulation transition. Several approaches, including novel materials or sophisticated configurations, have been proposed to overcome some of these size limitations but at the expense of increasing fabrication complexity and cost. Here, we demonstrate for the first time slow light bimodal interferometric behaviour in an integrated single-channel one-dimensional photonic crystal. The proposed structure supports two electromagnetic modes of the same polarization that exhibit a large group velocity difference. Specifically, an over 20-fold reduction in the higher-order-mode group velocity is experimentally shown on a straightforward all-dielectric bimodal structure, leading to a remarkable optical path reduction compared to other conventional interferometers. Moreover, we experimentally demonstrate the significant performance improvement provided by the proposed bimodal photonic crystal interferometer in the creation of an ultra-compact optical modulator and a highly sensitive photonic sensor.