Exceptional reduction of the diffusion constant in partially disordered photonic crystals

Year: 2008

Authors: Toninelli C., Vekris E., Ozin G.A., John S., Wiersma D.S.

Autors Affiliation: European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy and INFM-BEC, Sesto Fiorentino (Florence), Italy; Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Abstract: In real photonic crystals light is scattered by the imperfections of the periodic potential. We study experimentally the propagation of diffused light in silicon inverse opals and report an exceptionally reduced diffusion constant of 3.0 +/- 0.7 m(2)/s, in samples which are only partially disordered. Waves scattered both by the lattice planes and by their imperfections interfere and light is efficiently trapped in this hybrid scattering regime. Not only higher quality crystals, but also random materials present an order of magnitude bigger diffusion constant and hence weaker scattering.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

Volume: 101 (12)      Pages from: 123901  to: 123901

More Information: We wish to thank S. Gottardo and F. Riboli for stimulating discussions and N. Tetreault for his help in sample preparation. We acknowledge financial support from the EC NoE Phoremost, EU Contract No. RII3-CT-2003506350, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.123901

Citations: 50
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