Light transport and localization in two-dimensional correlated disorder

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that short-range correlations in 2D disordered photonic structures can be used to precisely control light transport and localization, with potential applications in photonics.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-analytical approach to study light transport in correlated 2D disordered media and shows how correlations can tune transport properties over large ranges.

Findings

Transport mean free path can be tuned by more than a factor of 2.

Localization length can vary over several orders of magnitude.

Numerical simulations confirm the theoretical predictions.

Abstract

Structural correlations in disordered media are known to affect significantly the propagation of waves. In this article, we theoretically investigate the transport and localization of light in 2D photonic structures with short-range correlated disorder. The problem is tackled semi-analytically using the Baus-Colot model for the structure factor of correlated media and a modified independent scattering approximation. We find that short-range correlations make it possible to easily tune the transport mean free path by more than a factor of 2 and the related localization length over several orders of magnitude. This trend is confirmed by numerical finite-difference time-domain calculations. This study therefore shows that disorder engineering can offer fine control over light transport and localization in planar geometries, which may open new opportunities in both fundamental and applied photonics research.