Engineering correlated disorder for exotic light scattering diagrams

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how correlated disorder in 2D emitter arrays can be engineered to produce controllable and observable colorful light scattering patterns, including diffraction, diffuse background, and correlation halos.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical framework for designing correlated disorder to control light scattering, enabling inverse design of desired optical patterns.

Findings

Correlation halos depend on correlation range and appear between Bragg peaks.

Controlled noise can selectively suppress diffraction orders.

The method reproduces natural photonic structures like Morpho butterfly scales.

Abstract

Diffuse scattering of light from disordered assemblies is traditionally viewed as an uncontrollable broadband scattering background resulting in whitish hues. Here, we demonstrate that correlated disorder enables precise engineering of light scattering from 2D arrays of emitters resulting in strong observable colors. Our analytical framework shows that introducing controlled noise, with tunable probability density functions and correlations, generates three distinct scattering components: diffraction orders, diffuse background, and correlation halos. Correlation halos, often mistaken for broadened diffraction peaks, are independent features whose positions depend on correlation range and can appear between Bragg peaks. Crucially, they persist far beyond the regime where diffraction orders vanish. The noise probability density function provides an additional control: specific diffraction orders can be selectively suppressed while preserving others. This approach reproduces the scattering signatures of natural photonic structures, e.g. found in Morpho butterflies, and reveals multiple pathways from order to disorder, each with distinct optical properties. Our work provides a practical method for inverse design -finding the disorder that produces desired scattering patterns. This establishes diffuse scattering as a designable quantity, expanding the toolkit for metasurfaces and structural color beyond periodic and hyperuniform structures.