Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 30, 2026

Using Microwave and Macroscopic Samples of Dielectric Solids to Study the Photonic Properties of Disordered Photonic Bandgap Materials
Published on: September 26, 2014
Effects of disorder in two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides
T N Langtry1, A A Asatryan, L C Botten
1CUDOS and Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales 2007, Australia.
Abstract:
The effects of randomness on the guiding properties of waveguides embedded in disordered two-dimensional photonic crystals composed of a finite cluster of circular cylinders of infinite length are investigated for TM-polarized radiation. Different degrees of disorder in the radius, filling fraction, refractive index, and position are considered for both straight and 90 degrees bent guides. The crystals exhibit similar sensitivity to refractive index and radius disorder, with a degree of disorder from 15%-20% yielding little substantial change in the guiding properties. A smaller range of position disorder is also considered. For strong disorder in radius and refractive index, the guide effectively closes. These results were obtained by a Monte Carlo simulation method, and the performance of this method is analyzed. The method requires at least ten realizations in some cases for convergence to commence; substantially more realizations are required for moderate and strong disorder to achieve accurate results.
Related Concept Videos
Interference and Diffraction
The de Broglie Wavelength
Standing Waves in a Cavity
Imperfections in Crystal Structure: Point, Line and Plane Defects
Determination of Crystal Structures
X-ray Crystallography
Diffraction
Diffraction is the change in the direction of travel experienced by an electromagnetic wave when it encounters a physical barrier whose dimensions are comparable to those of the wavelength of the light. X-rays are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths about as long as the distance between neighboring...

