We investigate the design of taper structures for coupling to slow-light modes of various photonic-crystal waveguides while taking into account parameter uncertainties inherent in practical fabrication. Our short-length (11 periods) robust tapers designed for ? = 1.55?m and a slow-light group velocity of c/34 have a total loss of < 20 dB even in the presence of nanometer-scale surface roughness...

Article history: Received 28 July 2008 Accepted 8 March 2009 Available online 5 April 2009

This paper presents a new toolbox for robust control design and analysis.

served on my thesis committee, and I would also like to thank them for their contributions.