Optical Properties of One-dimensional Disordered Multilayer Photonic Structures

The investigation of the differences between ordered and disordered materials (in the hundreds of nanometer lengthscale) is a crucial topic for a better understanding of light transport in photonic media. Here we study the light transmission properties of 1D photonic structures in which disorder is introduced in two different ways. In the first study, we have grouped the high refractive index layers in layer clusters, randomly distributed among layers of low refractive index. We have controlled the maximum size of such clusters and the ratio of the high-low refractive index layers (here called dilution). We studied the total transmission of the disordered structure within the photonic band gap of the ordered structure as a function of the maximum cluster size, and we have observed a valley in trend of the total transmission for a specific maximum cluster size. This value increases with increasing dilution. Furthermore, within one dilution we observe oscillations of the total transmission with increasing cluster size. In the second study, we have realized photonic structures with a random variation of the layer thickness. The structures were fabricated by radio-frequency (RF) sputtering technique. The transmission spectrum of the disordered structure was simulated by taking into account the refractive index dispersion of the materials, resulting in a good agreement between the experimental data and the simulations. We found that the transmission of the photonic structure in the range 300-1200 nm is lower with respect the corresponding periodic photonic crystal. The studied disordered 1D photonic structures are very interesting for the modelization and realization of broad band filters and light harvesting devices.