Hugonin, J. P.Lalanne, P.White, T. P.Krauss, T. F.2016-05-252016-05-250146-9592http://hdl.handle.net/1885/101710We study efficient injectors for coupling light from z-invariant ridge waveguides into slow Bloch modes of single-row defect photonic crystal waveguides. Two-dimensional vectorial computations performed with a Bloch mode theory approach predict that very high efficiencies (>90%) can be achieved for injector lengths of only a few wavelengths in length, even for small group velocities in the range of 𝑐⁄100–𝑐⁄400. This result suggests that photonic crystal devices operating with slow waves can be interfaced with classical waveguides without sacrificing compactness.This research is partly supported under the European contract SPLASH of the 6th EU Framework programme and by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche under contract MIRAMAN of the French ANR Nano2006. T. P. White is supported by an 1851 Royal Commission Research Fellowship.© 2007 Optical Society of AmericaKeywords: Group velocity dispersion; Waveguide couplers; Wavelength; Coupling light; Slow waves; Photonic crystals200710.1364/OL.32.0026382016-06-14