Photonic band gaps, defect characteristics, and waveguiding in two-dimensional disordered dielectric and metallic photonic crystals

We experimentally investigated the influence of positional disorder on the photonic band gap, defect characteristics, and waveguiding in two-dimensional dielectric and metallic photonic crystals. Transmission measurements performed on the dielectric photonic crystals have shown a stop band even if a large amount of disorder was introduced to these structures. On the other hand, the photonic band gap of the metallic crystals was found to be very sensitive to disorder, while the metallicity gap was not affected significantly. We addressed how the transmission characteristics of a cavity were affected in the presence of weak disorder. Since the translational symmetry was broken by disorders, we measured different cavity frequencies when we generated defects at various locations. We also demonstrated the propagation of photons by hopping through coupled-cavity structures in both dielectric and metallic two-dimensional photonic crystals. Effects of weak disorder on guiding and bending of electromagnetic waves through the coupled-cavity waveguides were also investigated.