Investigation of the effects of process-induced disorder location on planar photonic crystal waveguide properties

The effects of process-induced disorder location on planar photonic crystal waveguide properties are numerically investigated using three-dimensional finite difference time domain simulation by introducing random fluctuations of the hole radius, size, position, and shape of air-holes of two-dimensional planar photonic crystal slab. Results reveal that bandgap properties are extremely robust with respect to disorder. It is shown that the very first rows of holes play a major role in the amount of disorder-induced optical loss, and that keeping the first two rows of holes unchanged leads to a blue-shift of slow light waveguide properties.