Light transmission behaviour as a function of the homogeneity in one dimensional photonic crystals

TL;DR

This study investigates how the homogeneity of one-dimensional photonic crystals, measured by the Shannon-Wiener index, influences light transmission, revealing a non-linear relationship affected by material refractive index ratios.

Contribution

It introduces the Shannon-Wiener index as a measure of homogeneity in photonic crystals and analyzes its effect on light transmission, highlighting the influence of refractive index ratios.

Findings

Transmission decreases with increasing homogeneity up to a minimum point.

Beyond the minimum, transmission increases with homogeneity.

The trend's slope depends on the refractive index ratio.

Abstract

The average light transmission of one-dimensional photonic media has been studied as a function of the medium homogeneity, quantified by the Shannon-Wiener index. We have found a decrease in the average light transmission by increasing the Shannon-Wiener index up to minimum (corresponding to H'=0.9375): from this point, the transmission increases following the Shannon-Wiener index. The behaviour has been confirmed for different pairs of materials forming the photonic structure. Nevertheless, we have observed that the trend slope is proportional to the refractive index ratio between the two materials (nhi/nlow).