Isotropic gap formation, localization, and waveguiding in mesoscale Yukawa-potential amorphous structures


Sarihan M. C., Govdeli A., Lan Z., Yilmaz Y. B., Erdil M., Wang Y., ...Daha Fazla

Communications Physics, cilt.7, sa.1, 2024 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 7 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2024
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1038/s42005-023-01482-9
  • Dergi Adı: Communications Physics
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Compendex, INSPEC, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Amorphous photonic structures are mesoscopic optical structures described by electrical permittivity distributions with underlying spatial randomness. They offer a unique platform for studying a broad set of electromagnetic phenomena, including transverse Anderson localization, enhanced wave transport, and suppressed diffusion in random media. Despite this, at a more practical level, there is insufficient work on both understanding the nature of optical transport and the conditions conducive to vector-wave localization in these planar structures, as well as their potential applications to photonic nanodevices. In this study, we fill this gap by investigating experimentally and theoretically the characteristics of optical transport in a class of amorphous photonic structures and by demonstrating their use to some basic waveguiding nanostructures. We demonstrate that these 2-D structures have unique isotropic and asymmetric band gaps for in-plane propagation, controlled from first principles by varying the scattering strength and whose properties are elucidated by establishing an analogy between photon and carrier transport in amorphous semiconductors. We further observe Urbach band tails in these random structures and uncover their relation to frequency- and disorder-dependent Anderson-like localized modes through the modified Ioffe-Regel criterion and their mean free path - localization length character. Finally, we illustrate that our amorphous structures can serve as a versatile platform in which photonic devices such as disorder-localized waveguides can be readily implemented.