The effect of hyperuniform disorder on band gaps

TL;DR

This paper analytically investigates how hyperuniform disorder influences the formation and properties of band gaps in photonic and electronic systems, revealing the impact of correlated disorder on Lifshitz tails and density of states.

Contribution

It provides an analytical solution for Lifshitz tails in hyperuniform disordered systems using a path integral and instanton approach, extending understanding beyond uncorrelated disorder.

Findings

Derived the functional form of the density-of-states near the band edge.

Analyzed the impact of hyperuniform disorder on Weyl semimetals.

Extended Lifshitz tail theory to correlated disorder scenarios.

Abstract

The properties of semiconductors, insulators, and photonic crystals are defined by their electronic or photonic bands, and the gaps between them. When the material is disordered, Lifshitz tails appear: these are localized states that bifurcate from the band edge and act to effectively close the band gap. While Lifshitz tails are well understood when the disorder is spatially uncorrelated, there has been recent interest in the case of hyperuniform disorder, i.e., when the disorder fluctuations are highly correlated and approach zero at long length scales. In this paper, we analytically solve the Lifshitz tail problem for hyperuniform systems using a path integral and instanton approach. We find the functional form of the density-of-states as a function of the energy difference from the band edge. We also examine the effect of hyperuniform disorder on the density of states of Weyl semimetals, which do not have a band gap.