Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Using Microwave and Macroscopic Samples of Dielectric Solids to Study the Photonic Properties of Disordered Photonic Bandgap Materials
Published on: September 26, 2014
Amorphous photonic lattices: band gaps, effective mass, and suppressed transport
Mikael Rechtsman1, Alexander Szameit, Felix Dreisow
1Physics Department and Solid State Institute, Technion, 32000 Haifa, Israel.
Abstract:
We study, experimentally and numerically, amorphous photonic lattices and the existence of band gaps therein. Our amorphous system comprises 2D waveguides distributed randomly according to a liquidlike model responsible for the absence of Bragg peaks, as opposed to ordered lattices with disorder which always exhibit Bragg peaks. In amorphous lattices the bands comprise localized states, but we find that defect states residing in the gap are more localized than the localization length of states within the band. Finally, we show how the concept of effective mass carries over to amorphous photonic lattices.
Related Concept Videos
Energy Bands in Solids
Band Formation:
When atoms are brought close together, as in a solid, these discrete energy levels begin to split due to the overlap of electron orbitals from adjacent atoms. This split occurs because of the Pauli exclusion principle, which states that no two...
Band Theory
The energy difference between these bands is known as the band gap.
Conductor, Semiconductor,...
Trends in Lattice Energy: Ion Size and Charge
Semiconductors
Metals such as copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), or lead (Pb) have low resistivity and feature conduction bands that are either not fully occupied or overlap with the valence band, making a bandgap non-existent. This allows electrons in the highest energy levels of the valence band to easily transition to the conduction band upon gaining...
Lattice Energies of Ionic Crystals
Fermi Level Dynamics
Electron affinity in semiconductors refers to the energy gap between the minimum of its conduction band and the vacuum level and it is a critical parameter in determining how easily a semiconductor can accept additional electrons.
The work...

