Research Article Vol. 29, No.

11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17215

Emergence and tunability of transmission gap in

the strongly disordered regime of a dielectric
random scattering medium
M D I SHFAK TAHMID , 1,2 D IP J OTI PAUL , 1 AND M D Z UNAID
B ATEN 1,*
1 Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2 Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology,
Sylhet, Bangladesh
* mdzunaid@eee.buet.ac.bd

Abstract: Light transmission characteristics in a strongly disordered medium of dielectric

scatterers, having dimensionalities similar to those of self-organized GaN nanowires, is analyzed
employing finite difference time domain analysis technique. While photonic bandgap like
transmission gaps have already been reported for several quasi-crystalline and weakly disordered
media, the results of this work show that in spite of the lack of any form of quasi-crystallinity,
distinct transmission gaps can be attained in a strongly disordered medium of dielectric scatterers.
In fact, similar to the case of a two-dimensional photonic crystal, transmission gap of a uniform
random medium of GaN nanowires can be tuned from ultra-violet to visible regime of the
spectrum by varying diameter and fill-factor of the nanowires. Comparison of transmission
characteristics of periodic, weakly disordered, correlated strongly disordered and uniform strongly
disordered arrays having nanowires of identical diameters and fill factors suggest that in spite of
the dominance of multiple scattering process, the underlying Mie and Bragg processes contribute
to the emergence and tunability of transmission gaps in a strongly disordered medium. Without
any loss of generality, the findings of this work offer significant design latitude for controlling
transmission properties in the strong disorder regime, thereby offering the prospect of designing
disorder based novel photonic and optoelectronic devices and systems.

© 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

1. Introduction
A photonic crystal (PC) offers in itself a synthetic medium where propagation of electromagnetic
(EM) wave is prohibited over a specific frequency range known as the photonic band gap (PBG)
[1]. The unique characteristics of PCs, which arise from periodic variation of dielectric constant
of the constituent medium, have inspired researchers to control the propagation and confinement
of light in a variety of systems, which include but are not limited to optical switches, microcavities,
waveguides and filters [2–5]. Though periodicty is integral to the design of PC based structures,
interestingly the requirement of perodicity for the existence of PBG has somewhat been diluted by
recent studies, which suggest that PBG-like transmission gaps can exist in quasi-periodic, or even
in disordered media. Band gaps for TM- or TE-polarized wave have been theoretically predicted
or experimentally demonstrated for photonic quasi-crystals where quasi-periodic variation of
dielectric constant results in the scattering required to inhibit the flow of light over a specific range
of the spectrum [6–8]. Complete photonic band gaps have also been attained in two-dimensional
quasicrystals designed based on the concept of hyperuniformity, which represents an exotic
amorphous state of matter that lies between perfect crystals and ordinary fluids [9,10]. A weakly
disordered system of dielectric scatterers, derived from their perfectly ordered counterparts, also
reportedly exhibit PBG-like transmission gaps for a specific polarization of the EM wave [11,12].

#426153 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.426153
Journal © 2021 Received 26 Mar 2021; revised 2 May 2021; accepted 4 May 2021; published 19 May 2021
 Research Article Vol. 29, No. 11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17216

In spite of the referred detailed studies on the formation and characterization of PBG in
periodic, quasi-periodic, and hyperuniform structures, there has not been any report on whether
similar transmission gaps can be attained in strongly disordered systems, where any form of
quasi-crystallinity is non-existent. A two-dimensional (2D) uniform random array of dielectric
scatterer deserves particular attention in this regard as such an array is representative of the 2D
cross-section of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown self-organized nanowires, which have
gained extensive utilization among the photonics and optoelectronics research community owing
to their superior electrical properties and light-trapping characteristics [13,14]. From materials
perspective, GaN-based nanowires grown on silicon are particularly prospective as lasers and
detectors extending from UV to near-infrared regime of the spectrum have been experimentally
demonstrated based on these nanostructures [15–19], and more recently a monolithic photonic
integrated circuit has been reported based on III-nitride nanowires grown on (001) silicon
substrate [20]. Though tunability of Anderson localized resonant modes have been confirmed
in such self-organized nanowire arrays [21], it remains to be seen whether PBG-like tunable
transmission gaps can also be attained in these systems of uniform random scatterers.
Considering self-organized nanowire array to be the perfect testbed for exploring the possibility
of attaining tunable transmission gaps in the strongly disordered regime, in this work we present
a systematic study on the propagation of light in uniform random arrays of dielectric scatterers
having dimensonalities and areal densities similar to those of MBE-grown self-organized GaN
nanowire arrays on silicon. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of wave propagation in
the strong-disorder regime, transmission characteristics of light in perfectly ordered, correlated
weakly disordered and correlated strongly disordered arrays have also been assessed and compared.
The finite difference time domain (FDTD) based theoretical analysis presented in this work
suggests that in spite of the utter lack of periodicity, strongly disordered systems exhibit PBG-like
transmission gaps which can be predicted from diameter and areal density of the nanowire
arrays. Furthermore, without any loss of generality, we show that such transmission gaps can
be tuned by controlling areal density and diameter of the uniform random array of nanowires.
Detailed analysis of spectral characteristics suggest that in spite of the high degree of disorder,
the underlying Mie and Bragg scattering resonances result in the emergence of band gap and the
consequent tunability of transmission properties in the strong-disorder regime.

2. Analyzed structures and methodology

As the present study aims to investigate transmission properties in the strong disorder regime, it
is important to define geometrical and structural aspects of the transport medium accordingly.
To this end, we resort to the scattering t-matrix based analysis reported by Arya et al. [22].
For a random medium√︁of circular scatterers, this theoretical framework defines a characteristic
scattering length lc = 3/π(c/ω), where ω is angular frequency and c is velocity of EM wave in
the background medium. For strong-localization to occur, the condition l/lc ≤ 1 needs to be
satisfied where l = c/(2γ) is known as the diffusion length. Here
|︁2
|︁ 2 (︂ ωd )︂ 3 1+ϵr
|︁
|︁
18c3 f
|︁ 3 2c 2−ϵ
r
|︁
γ = 2 3 |︁ (1)
|︁ |︁
ω d |︁ 3
(︂ )︂ |︁
|︁ 1 + i 23 ωd 1+ϵr |︁
2c 2−ϵ
|︁
r

where ϵr is relative dielectric constant of the scattering medium, d is average diameter of the
scatterer, and f is filling fraction of the scatterers in the medium. Based on Eq. (1), contour plots
describing correlation between different diameters, fill factors and l/lc values are shown over a
wide range of wavelength in Fig. 1(a). Similar to a phase space diagram, the contours represent
different combinations of d and f for which strong- or weak-localizations occur. The contours
having l/lc = 1 correspond to strong-localization regime, and therefore the corresponding
 Research Article Vol. 29, No. 11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17217

random media constitute in themselves strongly disordered systems. As can be observed, strong
localization is obtained for random arrays having fill factors ranging from 40 − 50 % and scatterer
diameters of 60-90 nm. These dimensions are in accordance with diameters and areal densities
of epitaxially grown self-organized III-Nitride nanowires arrays, which have been extensively
utilized for experimentally realizing electrically pumped visible and near-infrared lasers on (001)
silicon [23]. In line with such practical relevance, the mentioned diameters and fill factors of the
nanowires have been considered in this work. The two-dimensional (2-D) cross-sectional view
of a representative uniform random array of d, having GaN nanowires of 60 nm diameter and
50 % fill factor, is shown in Fig. 1(b).

Fig. 1. (a) Contour plot of l/lc for different diameters and fill-factors of the nanowire arrays;
(b) cross-sectional view of uniform random and (c) periodic array having identical diameter
and fill-factor of 60 nm and 50% respectively; (d) disorder strength (ζ) as a function of
allowed variation for different fill-factors of the arrays (inset shows unit cell of periodic array
having diameter d and lattice constant a); (e) weakly correlated disordered (ζ = 0.1425), (f)
and strongly correlated disordered (ζ = 0.9963) arrays with diameters and fill-factors of 60
nm and 50% respectively.

To compare transmission characteristics of the uniform random, correlated strongly disordered

and weakly disordered nanowire arrays, correlated random arrays are systematically generated
based on the periodic structure shown in Fig. 1(c). It is to be noted that nanowire diameter and
fill-factor of this periodic structure are identical to those of the uniform random array. The unit
cell of this periodic structure, which has a lattice constant of 75 nm, is shown as an inset to
Fig. 1(d). By defining center co-ordinates of nanowires of the periodic array as (x, y), co-ordinates
(x+δx, y+δy) of correlated disordered arrays have been generated using the following relation:

δx = (P/100) × R × rx
(2)
δy = (P/100) × R × ry
 Research Article Vol. 29, No. 11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17218

Here P is a percentage randomness parameter defined as P ∈ [0, 100], {rx , ry } are uniform
random numbers within the range [-1, 1] and R is the allowed range of variation. To avoid
overlapping of nanowires in an array, center-to-center distance between adjacent nanowires is
maintained to be larger than their diameters. To have a quantitative estimate of the degree of
disorder of an array, the parameter disorder strength (ζ) is defined and calculated as follows [24]:
N (︃
1 ∑︂ Aj − µA Bj − µB
)︃ (︃ )︃
ζ =1− (3)
N − 1 j=1 σA σB

Here A and B are one dimensional vectors created by converting two-dimensional refractive
index profiles of the periodic and correlated-disordered structures respectively, N is the total
number of elements in each array, µA (µB ) and σA (σB ) are mean and standard deviation of vector
A (B) respectively. In Fig. 1(d), ζ is plotted as a function of R for different fill factors of the arrays.
As can be observed, even for the highest value of the randomness parameter (P = 100), disorder
strength can be substantially low if the allowed range of variation is small. It has been reported
earlier that an allowed range of variation of a/5, which corresponds to ζ = 0.20 according to
Fig. 1(d), results in a weakly disordered system. This is in accordance with our previous work
where it has been shown that strong-localization of light in GaN nanowires occur in random
systems having disorder strengths of about 0.4 or higher [21]. In this work, by considering R =
a/2, correlated disordered arrays having ζ values of 0.14 and 0.99 (shown in Figs. 1(e)–1(f))
have been generated as representative weakly- and strongly-disordered systems respectively. It
is noteworthy that though both the arrays of Figs. 1(b) and 1(f) represent strongly disordered
systems of identical fill factors and nanowire diameters, the former represents a uniform random
system whereas the latter is a correlated disordered array generated based on the periodic array
of Fig. 1(c).
Spatial, temporal and spectral aspects of light-transmission characteristics in the nanowire
arrays have been analyzed based on finite difference time domain (FDTD) analysis technique.
Open-source software package MEEP has been utilized for FDTD simulation of both random and
periodic arrays [25]. Bandstructures of the periodic arrays have been estimated using open-source
eigen-frequency solver MPB [26]. Throughout this study a Gaussian pulse source having spectral
extent of 200 nm to 600 nm is end-fired from one end of the array, and transmittance is measured
from the opposite end. Phase matched layer (PML) having thickness greater than the highest
wavelength of the source is utilized around the computational region to model an open-system.
Transmitted and reflected flux have been spectrally resolved and normalized to have an estimate
of transmission properties of the arrays.

3. Results and discussions

Prior to investigating transmission properties of strongly-disordered systems, wave propagation
characteristics of periodic nanowire arrays are analyzed. To have an estimate of the transmission
gap of the periodic system of Fig. 1(c), dispersion relations corresponding to both transverse
electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes have been computed based on iterative
eigensolving techniques [26]. As can be observed from Fig. 2(a), though a complete PBG
is non-existent in the periodic system, distinct stop-band is observed for TM mode over the
wavelength range of interest (250 nm 600 nm) of the present study. Signature of photonic bandgap
becomes evident in the periodic system’s transmission and reflection spectra as well (Fig. 2(b)).
As can be observed, clear transmission (reflection) gap (band) exist in the transmission (reflection)
spectrum for TM modes, whereas TE mode exhibits near-unity transmission over the considered
wavelength range. Nearly equally spaced spikes are observed in the flux spectra of Fig. 2(b) for
wavelengths larger than 400 nm. These spikes are in fact related to Fabry-Perot (FP) resonance
between boundaries of the nanowire array. By varying length (L) of the array, we notice that the
 Research Article Vol. 29, No. 11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17219

spacing (∆λm ) between adjacent spikes vary in accordance with the relation ∆λm = 2L 2L
m − m+1 ,
where m is the mode number of FP resonant mode. It is also noteworthy that the PBG calculated
in Fig. 2(a) is narrower than the transmission gap shown in Fig. 2(b). Such difference arises
from finite dimensionality of the nanowire array. The bandstructure shown in Fig. 2(a) is for a
photonic crystal of infinite extent, whereas the transmittance spectra of Fig. 2(b) are computed for
a 3 × 3 µm2 periodic array. In fact, transmittance of this finite array is not exactly zero over the
transmission gap, though the value remains negligibly small (from 10−6 to 10−3 ) for all practical
purposes. Nevertheless, bandstructure calculations and FDTD simulation results suggest that
transmission gap of the finite dimensional periodic system is directly correlated to PBG of the
photonic crystal, and for the considered dimensions of GaN-nanowire arrays, the transmission
gap varies from UV to visible regime of the spectra for TM-polarized waves. Considering
controllability of transmission characteristics over this wavelength range in GaN-based systems,
this study henceforth investigates transmission characteristics for TM-polarized incident waves.

Fig. 2. (a) Photonic bandstructure of both TE and TM modes of periodic array having
70 nm diameter and 50 % fill-factor (the PBG under consideration is highlighted in green),
and corresponding (b) transmittance (T) and reflectance (R) spectra; (c) contour plot of
transmittance for different diameters with a constant fill-factor of 50 %, and (d) transmittance
spectra for varying fill-factors of periodic arrays having nanowire diameters of 70 nm (solid
lines) and 60 nm (dotted lines).

Tunability of transmission characteristics for TM mode, obtained by adjusting diameters and

fill-factors of periodic nanowire arrays, are shown in Figs. 2(c)–2(d). As nanowire-diameter
increases from 60 nm to 90 nm at a constant fill-factor of 50 %, the transmission-gap red-shifts
from ∼300 nm to 450 nm. The bandwidth of the transmission-gap also increases from about
52 nm to 82 nm for such variation of diameter. Opposite trends are observed for fill-factor
variation while the diameter is kept constant (Fig. 2(d)). As the fill-factor increases from 30% to
 Research Article Vol. 29, No. 11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17220

50%, the transmission-gap shifts towards smaller wavelength, and also the bandwidth decreases
gradually from about 100 nm to 62 nm. Such dependence of transmission-gap on diameter and
fill-factor can be explained in terms of lattice constant √︁ (a), which is related to diameter and
fill-factor of the array according to the relation a = 0.25πd2 /f . This relation suggests that
the increase (decrease) of diameter (fill-factor) while keeping fill-factor (diameter) constant
effectively increases lattice constant of the array. Therefore according to the dispersion relation,
a red-shift of the PBG is expected for the increase (decrease) of diameter (fill-factor) of the
periodic structure. It is also noteworthy from Fig. 2(d) that upper-edge of the transmission-gap
is governed by fill-factor of the array, whereas nanowire dimension defines lower-edge of the
gap. Therefore significant tunability of transmission characteristics can be attained by varying
fill-factor and diameter of nanowires of the periodic array.
Having analyzed transmission properties of periodic nanowire arrays, wave propagation
characteristics of correlated- and uniform-disordered structures are analyzed and compared
in what follows. In Fig. 3(a), transmission and reflection spectra of correlated and uniform
disordered nanowire arrays are compared with those of the equivalent periodic array. As can be
observed, in spite of the lack of periodicity, transmission gaps similar to the photonic gap of a
periodic system are obtained for the disordered arrays. Though such characteristics have earlier
been reported for weakly disordered systems operating in the microwave regime [12], here it is
noteworthy that stop-bands of near-zero transmission are obtained in the strong-disordered regime
as well. In addition to the transmission gap, correlated disordered systems having a low degree
of disorder (e.g. with ζ=0.14) tends to retain some of the FP resonant peaks, which have been
observed earlier in the transmission spectra of the periodic structure. However in both uniform
random and strongly-disordered systems, such resonant peaks are non-existent because of the
dominance of random scattering events. The log-scale plot of transmission spectra (shown as an
inset of Fig. 3(a)) of the correlated strongly disordered system (with ζ=0.99) and uniform random
system suggests that transmittance is about an order of magnitude smaller in the uniform random
one. It may be noted that uniform random systems are spatially uncorrelated to the periodic ones
and are generated based on uniform random distributions. Consequently, a disorder strength
based on Eq. (3) cannot be evaluated for a uniform random array. Nonetheless, it is quite obvious
that the emergence of transmission gap is expected to be more pronounced in uniform random
systems than in strongly disordered arrays having near-unity ζ values. Also transmission-gap
shrinkage appears to be more pronounced in the uniform random system. As will be discussed
later, this is possibly related to the higher fraction of Bragg process in such media. It may
also be noted that though transmission characteristics of periodic and disordered systems over
the gap region appear to be similar in terms of absolute value of transmittance, transmission
coefficients and therefore transmission phases are expected to be different. A theoretical study on
the comparison between transmission coefficients of photonic crystals and disordered arrays was
beyond the scope of the present work.
To ascertain that such observation of PBG-like near-zero transmission is independent of spatial
distribution of the array, configurational averaged transmitted and reflected flux for four different
random arrays having identical diameters and fill-factors are calculated and plotted in Fig. 3(b).
The flux spectra confirm that distinct and repeatable transmission gaps are obtained for the
strongly-disordered random arrays irrespective of spatial configuration of the scatterers. Besides
exhibiting transmission-gaps, strongly disordered systems demonstrate tunability of transmission
characteristics similar to the case of a periodic system. As shown in Fig. 3(c), the center of the
TM transmission-gap of a uniform random array having f = 50 % can be conveniently tuned
from about 370 nm to 410 nm by varying nanowire diameter from 60 nm to 90 nm. Also similar
to the case of a periodic system, transmission-gap of the uniform random system can be tuned
towards smaller wavelength by increasing the fill-factor, while maintaining a constant diameter of
 Research Article Vol. 29, No. 11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17221

Fig. 3. (a) Transmittance spectra of periodic, weakly correlated (ζ = 0.1425) disordered,

strongly correlated disordered (ζ = 0.9963), and uniform random systems having identical
diameter and fill-factor of 60 nm and 50 %, respectively (FP resonant modes appearing at
same wavelengths for periodic and weakly correlated arrays have been marked with circles);
inset shows log-scale plot of transmittance of random and strongly disordered arrays; (b)
configurational average of transmittance and reflectance spectra for four different uniform
random arrays having 70 nm diameter and 50 % fill-factor; (c) contour plot of transmittance
for different diameters with a constant fill-factor of 50 %, and (d) transmittance spectra for
different fill-factors of uniform random arrays having nanowire diameter of 70 nm (inset
shows the relative bandgap ( χ) as a function of disorder strength (ζ)).

the nanowires. Such characteristics are shown in Fig. 3(d), where fill factor of uniform random
arrays having d = 70 nm is varied from 30 % to 50 %.
In the context of perturbation theory, it is understandable that transmission properties of a
correlated weakly-disordered array can be predicted from transmission characteristics of the
corresponding periodic system. However it is quite remarkable that in spite of the lack of spatial-
correlation with the periodic system, a uniform random array exhibits tunable transmission
characteristics over the same wavelength regime as that of the periodic one. From these
observations it can be inferred that transmission characteristics of a periodic system are retained
even in an uncorrelated strongly-disordered one, if identical dimensions (represented here by
diameter) and areal-density (represented here by fill-factor) of scatterers are maintained within
the two media. Such similarity in transmission properties possibly emanate from the underlying
Bragg process in these structures. To gain further insight into this phenomenon, transmission
gaps of the nanowire arrays are carefully examined. A closer observation of the transmittance
spectra of Fig. 3(a) suggest that transmission-gap of the arrays gradually shrink from 52 nm to
35 nm with increasing disorder in the arrays. This is further illustrated in the inset of Fig. 3(d)
where relative transmission-gap, χ = ∆λ(ζ)/∆λ(0) is plotted as a function of disorder strength.
 Research Article Vol. 29, No. 11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17222

Here ∆λ(ζ) is transmission-gap of an array having disorder strength of ζ. As can be observed,

transmission-gap of the array decreases by about 50 % as the system transits from a perfectly
ordered to a disordered one.
Whereas sustenance of band-gap in a disordered array is attributed to the Mie process, band-gap
shrinkage is considered to be a signature of Bragg process in the medium [12,27]. As the
Mie process is governed by coupling of modes between adjacent scatteres, it can contribute to
band-gap formation even in the lack of periodicity in the medium. The randomness however
debilitates the Bragg process, which is dependent on long-range periodicity of the array, thereby
resulting in shrinkage of the transmission-gap. It has been shown in [27] that the Mie and Bragg
processes co-exist in weakly disordered dielectric media having ζ values of 0.15 or smaller.
Here we observe that such co-existence extends into correlated, as well as uncorrelated strongly
disordered regime. It is therefore likely that the Bragg process, inherent in both the periodic and
random systems, is giving rise to the tunable transmission characteristics. To have a quantitative
estimate of the contributions of Bragg and Mie scattering towards the emergence of transmission
gap, we have adopted the formalism described by Nojima et al. [27]. In this approach, the
contribution of Bragg scattering towards bandgap formation in a disordered medium of dielectric
scatterers is estimated using the following relation:
1 − χdielectric
ΓBragg = (4)
1 − χmetal
Here ΓBragg is the relative contribution of the Bragg process, χdielectric is relative transmission
gap of a disordered system of dielectric scatterers, and χmetal is relative transmission gap of the
disordered system of metallic scatterers having identical spatial co-ordinate, diameter and fill
factor as of the dielectric system. Based on Eq. (4), Bragg contribution towards the formation of
transmission gap is plotted as a function of disorder strength in Fig. 4. The error bars shown in this
plot indicate the range of χ and ΓBragg obtained from statistical variation of spatial co-ordinates
of the arrays. As can be observed, the Bragg contribution tends to increase with disorder strength.
For weakly disordered systems, the average Bragg contribution tends to be around 30%, which is
consistent with the results reported in [27]. On the other hand, for strongly disordered systems
having ζ > 0.4, the average Bragg contribution is obtained to be 57%. Such contributions of
Bragg process in GaN based disordered medium is consistent with the results reported in [27,28],
which show that for dielectric disordered medium having refractive index of 3.5 or smaller, Bragg
process is expected to be dominant. It is also noteworthy that upon statistical simulation, Bragg
contribution in uniform random arrays is obtained to be higher (around 80%) compared to the
value of ΓBragg obtained for correlated strongly disordered systems. This explains our previous
observation in regards to Fig. 3(a) that transmission-gap shrinks more in uniform random systems,
compared to the case of a correlated disordered system having near-unity disorder strength.
To have a comparative estimate of tunability in the strongly disordered and perfectly ordered
regimes, center wavelength (λc ) of transmission-gap and gap-midgap ratio (∆λ/λc ) are plotted
in Figs. 5(a)–5(b) as a function of diameter and fill-factor of the periodic and uniform random
arrays. It is quite obvious that both systems exhibit similar characteristic trends, though some
fluctuations are observed for the random arrays because of configurational dependence of the flux
spectrum. It is also noteworthy that λc values obtained for the random arrays are smaller than
those of the periodic ones because of the corresponding bandgap shrinkage. Bandgap shrinkage
also results in a reduced value of ∆λ/λc for the random systems. Notwithstanding this, similar
tunability of transmission characteristics for the random and periodic systems become evident
from these results and analysis. It is quite interesting to note that tunability of Anderson localized
resonant modes has been reported earlier in [21] for GaN-based self-organized nanowire arrays
having dimensionalities similar to those reported herein. Upon careful examination of the results
reported in [21], we observe that for identical diameter and fill-factor of GaN nanowire arrays,
the Anderson localized resonant mode invariably lies within the transmission gaps reported
 Research Article Vol. 29, No. 11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17223

Fig. 4. Relative bandgap and Bragg contribution plotted as a function of disorder strength
for correlated disordered arrays of different disorder strengths

in this work. This is quite similar to the concept of designing high quality factor resonant
modes by employing point or line defects in photonic crystals. Just as the resonant mode of
a PC-based resonator can be tuned by controlling PBG of the underlying structure, we notice
that the Anderson localized resonant modes can be tuned by controlling transmission gap of the
corresponding strongly-disordered scattering medium.

Fig. 5. (a) Dependence of center wavelength and gap-midgap ratio on nanowire diameter
(for a constant fill-factor of 50 %) and (b) fill-factor (for a constant diameter of 70 nm), for
both periodic and uniform random systems.

From the discussions so far it is quite obvious that scattering is expected to play a dominant
role to reduce output transmission in disordered systems comprising of dielectric scatterers. To
have an estimate of the degree of scattering in these systems, transmittance of perfectly ordered
nanowire arrays and uniform random nanowire arrays of identical diameters (d = 60 nm) and
fill factor (f = 50 %) are compared for different lengths (L) of the waveguides. For all these
waveguides, the width is kept fixed at 3 µm. The transmittance plot of Fig. 6(a) suggests that
transmittance of the periodic system remains invariant with the system length. However in the
uniform random system, the transmittance tends to decreases with increasing propagation length.
This is further illustrated in Fig. 6(b), which plots the light output at a transmission wavelength
 Research Article Vol. 29, No. 11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17224

of 550 nm. As can be observed, the output of the random system decreases linearly with system
length, whereas in the periodic system it almost remains constant. Similar characteristic trends
have been experimentally reported for a self-organized nanowire array based green laser [29].
To have a quantitative estimate of the degree of scattering in periodic and random arrays, light
scattering in both these systems have been analyzed by computing the in-plane scattered flux,
perpendicular to the direction of wave transmission. The flux planes along which scattering is
calculated are denoted as ‘Scattering Monitors’ (Fig. 6(c)). As can be observed, at wavelengths
above the transmission gap, scattering is minimal in the periodic systems for all lengths of the
waveguide. However in the random system, the fraction of scattered light tends to decrease with
increasing length of the waveguide. As shown in Fig. 6(d), the fraction of in plane scattered light
can be as high as 40 % in a random system having L = 7 µm. This explains the considerably low
output transmission of the random system. For both periodic and random systems, scattering
appears to be small within 260 nm -290 nm as this wavelength range falls within the transmission
gap of the array and consequently a very small fraction of the incident light is collected by
the scattering monitors. To further clarify this point, we have included as insets electric field
distributions in these arrays for an incident Gaussian flux having center wavelength of λ = 277
nm. As can be observed, almost all the light is reflected back to the source for this incident
flux, and consequently the light collected by the scattering monitor comes out to be significantly
small. Similar characteristics are obtained for any wavelength of the input flux residing within

Fig. 6. (a) Transmittance spectra of periodic and uniform random systems having nanowire
diameter, array width and fill-factor values of 60 nm, 3 µm and 50 %, respectively, while
the system lengths (L) is varied from 3 µm to 7 µm, and (b) the corresponding output (in
dB) at 550 nm wavelength; (c) the resultant scattering spectra (normalized by input flux)
of the periodic, and (d) uniform random arrays (detection plane of scattered flux is shown
as an inset of (c)); electric field distributions in periodic and random arrays for an incident
wavelength of λ=277 nm have been shown as insets of (c) and (d) respectively.
 Research Article Vol. 29, No. 11 / 24 May 2021 / Optics Express 17225

spectral range of the transmission gap. As expected, beyond the transmission gap, in-plane
scattering appears to be significantly higher for the random system. In spite of such high degree
of scattering, the random system offers the tunability of transmission gap in accordance with
characteristics of periodic system having identical diameter and fill-factor of the nanowires,
thereby offering the prospect of designing disorder based photonic systems, including photonic
integrated circuits, where disorder can be exploited to obtain predictable output characteristics
within a degree of uncertainty. The findings presented here can also be extended to modulate
the behavior of light in a variety of nano-engineered disordered media, which are becoming
increasingly important for applications related to biological imaging, biosensing, non-invasive
medical diagnosis, nanophotonics and quantum information processing.

4. Conclusion
To summarize, two-dimensional uniform random scatterers having dielectric constant and
dimensionalities similar to those of self-organized GaN nanowire arrays have been considered to
investigate wave propagation in the strong-disorder regime. The finite-difference time domain
based numerical analysis of this study suggests that similar to the case of perfectly ordered and
weakly disordered systems, strongly-disordered arrays exhibit transmission gaps which can be
controlled by varying diameter and areal density of the scatterers. Configurational averaging
based light transmission characteristics of the random arrays suggest that band gaps in such
systems emanate from the complex interplay between Bragg scattering and Mie resonance in the
media. Though in-plane multiple scattering significantly diminishes light output at the receiving
end of these arrays, it is quite remarkable that the underlying Bragg scattering remains strong
enough for the transmission gap to be tuned over a pre-defined range of the EM spectrum. Such
observance of transmission gap and its subsequent tunability offers the prospect of designing
self-assemebled, disordered array based transmission medium, where disorder can be tailored to
meet specific requirements of the photonic systems.
Acknowledgments. The authors acknowledge the support and facilities obtained from the Department of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering (EEE), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). M. I. Tahmid also
acknowledges the facilities received from the Department of EEE, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology
(SUST) during the course of this work.
Disclosures. The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related to this article.
Data availability. Data underlying the results presented in this paper are not publicly available at this time but may
be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.

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