Functional-defect design and optimization on disordered photonic bandgap materials.

Recently, various disordered photonic band gap materials not limited to any crystalline symmetry or translational order have been proposed. Some have shown inherent advantages associated with the isotropy of the structures, offering unprecedented freedom for functional defect designs impossible to achieve in photonic crystals. Based on our previous study on disordered or quasi-crystalline photonic bandgap materials, we conduct a systematic study on functional-defect design and optimization for various disordered photonic bandgap materials and explore their potential advantages in making highly compact, flexible, and energy-efficient photonic devices. The electric field profiles of the defect modes have been generated and compared for optimizing the geometry design for targeted frequencies, Q factors, and footprint sizes. Particularly, the rich point-defect flavors and flexible line/curve defect arrangements available in disordered systems have been explored. Temperature stability of these functional defects have also been investigated.