Time-reversal constraint limits unidirectional photon emission in slow-light photonic crystals

Photonic crystal waveguides are known to support C-points—point-like polarization singularities with local chirality. Such points can couple with dipole-like emitters to produce highly directional emission, from which spin-photon entanglers can be built. Much is made of the promise of using slow-light modes to enhance this light–matter coupling. Here we explore the transition from travelling to standing waves for two different photonic crystal waveguide designs. We find that time-reversal symmetry and the reciprocal nature of light places constraints on using C-points in the slow-light regime. We observe two distinctly different mechanisms through which this condition is satisfied in the two waveguides. In the waveguide designs, we consider a modest group velocity of v g ≈ c /10 is found to be the optimum for slow-light coupling to the C-points. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Unifying physics and technology in light of Maxwell's equations’.