Slow light by Bloch surface wave tunneling

We demonstrate a slow light configuration that makes use of Bloch Surface Waves as an intermediate excitation in a double-prism tunneling configuration. This method is simple compared to the more usual technique for slowing light using the phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency in atomic gases or doped ionic crystals operated at temperatures below 4 K. Using a semi-numerical approach, we show that a 1D photonic crystal, a multilayer structure composed of alternating layers of TiO2 and SiO2, can be used to slow down light by a factor of up to 400. The results also show that better control of the speed of light can be achieved by changing the number of bilayers and the air-gap thickness appropriately. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America