  A study of band edge phenomena in ridge waveguide magnetophotonic crystals is
presented. Normal mode analysis is used to examine the near-band edge and Bragg
center-wavelength group velocities and their relation to the polarization.
Large polarization departures from the input are observed in Bragg gratings
patterned by focused-ion-beam milling on liquid-phase-epitaxial (LPE) BiLuIG
films on (111) gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) substrates. Transfer matrix
analysis of the spectral response in the photonic crystals allows the
determination of the phase of the elliptically polarized normal modes from
measured transmittances and polarization rotation. Unlike non-birefringent
Faraday rotators a non-linear-relation exists between polarization rotation and
the normal mode phase difference. Large phase differences between right- and
left-elliptically polarized normal modes and optical slow-down are found near
the band edges and at the resonant cavity center-wavelength. Standing-wave
photon trapping and optical slow-down are analyzed and compared for these
systems.
