Paper detail

Extended slow-light field enhancement in positive/negative-index heterostructures

We present a bi-waveguide paradigm composed of joined Positive-Index-Material PIM)/Negative-Index-Material (NIM) slabs, demonstrating ultra-slow light propagation stemming from the competing propagation disposition in the PIM and NIM regions. We report for the first time a mesoscopic extended electromagnetic (EM) enhancement covering regions of the order of the free space wavelength, enabled by the slow-light mode in our system. Our dynamic numerical results are consistent with our developed theoretical model, predicting an EM energy accumulation reminiscent of a charging capacitor. Our analysis reveals that spatial compression is not a requirement to EM enhancement in slow-light systems and stresses on the merits of high coupling efficiency, strong temporal compression, monomodality and modal index bandwidth, -all present in our proposed paradigm. Furthermore, we show that the heterostructure waveguide mode is an extra-ordinary entity with a unique energy velocity, that is opposite to the Poynting vector in one of the participant waveguides. We believe these results will inspire new slow-light platforms relevant to the collective harvesting of strong light-matter interactions.