Transmission of Slow Light through Photonic Crystal Waveguide Bends

The spectral dependence of a bending loss of cascaded 60-degree bends in photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides is explored in a slab-type silicon-on-insulator system. Ultra-low bending loss of (0.05+/-0.03)dB/bend is measured at wavelengths corresponding to the nearly dispersionless transmission regime. In contrast, the PhC bend is found to become completely opaque for wavelengths range corresponding to the slow light regime. A general strategy is presented and experimentally verified to optimize the bend design for improved slow light transmission.