  The spectral dependence of a bending loss of cascaded 60-degree bends in
photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides is explored in a slab-type
silicon-on-insulator system. Ultra-low bending loss of (0.05+/-0.03)dB/bend is
measured at wavelengths corresponding to the nearly dispersionless transmission
regime. In contrast, the PhC bend is found to become completely opaque for
wavelengths range corresponding to the slow light regime. A general strategy is
presented and experimentally verified to optimize the bend design for improved
slow light transmission.
