Disorder-induced modification of the transmission of light in a two-dimensional photonic crystal

Abstract

We report on the modeling of light transmission in disordered two-dimensional photonic crystals with an incomplete photonic band gap. The disorder leads to a decrease in light attenuation in the transmission dip corresponding to the photonic band gap. We show that the scattered transmission can differ substantially from the straight one and that the minimum of this scattered transmission does not correspond to the center of the photonic band gap. The disorder smoothes and broadens the attenuation dip that appears in transmission spectra and can create an asymmetric shape. The straight transmission has a thresholdlike behavior as a function of disorder and sustains a certain amount of disorder before changing.