Interplay between localization and absorption in disordered waveguides

This work presents results of ab-initio simulations of continuous wave transport in disordered absorbing waveguides. Wave interference effects cause deviations from diffusive picture of wave transport and make the diffusion coefficient position- and absorption-dependent. As a consequence, the true limit of a zero diffusion coefficient is never reached in an absorbing random medium of infinite size, instead, the diffusion coefficient saturates at some finite constant value. Transition to this absorption-limited diffusion exhibits a universality which can be captured within the framework of the self-consistent theory (SCT) of localization. The results of this work (i) justify use of SCT in analyses of experiments in localized regime, provided that absorption is not weak; (ii) open the possibility of diffusive description of wave transport in the saturation regime even when localization effects are strong.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Position-dependent diffusion of light in disordered waveguides

Diffusion has been widely used to describe a random walk of particles or waves, and it requires only one parameter -- the diffusion constant. For waves, however, diffusion is an approximation that disregards the possibility of interference. Anderson localization, which manifests itself through a vanishing diffusion coefficient in an infinite system, originates from constructive interference of waves traveling in loop trajectories -- pairs of time-reversed paths returning to the same point. In an open system of finite size, the return probability through such paths is reduced, particularly near the boundary where waves may escape. Based on this argument, the self-consistent theory of localization and the supersymmetric field theory predict that the diffusion coefficient varies spatially inside the system. A direct experimental observation of this effect is a challenge because it requires monitoring wave transport inside the system. Here, we fabricate two-dimensional photonic random media and probe position-dependent diffusion inside the sample from the third dimension. By varying the geometry of the system or the dissipation which also limits the size of loop trajectories, we are able to control the renormalization of the diffusion coefficient. This work shows the possibility of manipulating diffusion via the interplay of localization and dissipation.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

Large Enhancement of Spontaneous Emission Rates of InAs Quantum Dots in GaAs Microdisks

Control of spontaneous emission in a microcavity has many important applications, e.g. improvement of the efficiency of light emitting devices. InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in microdisks are ideal systems for spontaneous emission control. The whispering gallery (WG) modes of microdisks have low volume and high quality factor. The homogeneous linewidth of InAs quantum dots is smaller than the spectral width of WG modes. Thus, a large enhancement of the spontaneous emission rates should be expected for QDs coupled to WG modes. However, large inhomogeneous broadening of the QD energy levels and random spatial distribution of the QDs in a microdisk lead to a broad distribution of the spontaneous emission rates. Using an efficient regularized method based on the truncated singular value decomposition and the non-negative constraints, we extract the distribution of spontaneous emission rates from the temporal decay of emission intensity. The maximum spontaneous emission enhancement factor exceeds 10

Tunable local polariton modes in semiconductors

We study the local states within the polariton bandgap that arise due to deep defect centers with strong electron-phonon coupling. Electron transitions involving deep levels may result in alteration of local elastic constants. In this case, substantial reversible transformations of the impurity polariton density of states occur, which include the appearance/disappearance of the polariton impurity band, its shift and/or the modification of its shape. These changes can be induced by thermo- and photo-excitation of the localized electron states or by trapping of injected charge carriers. We develop a simple model, which is applied to the $O_P$ center in $GaP$. Further possible experimental realizations of the effect are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Manifestation of photonic band structure in small clusters of spherical particles

We study the formation of the photonic band structure in small clusters of dielectric spheres. The first signs of the band structure, an attribute of an infinite crystal, can appear for clusters of 5 particles. Density of resonant states of a cluster of 32 spheres may exhibit a well defined structure similar to the density of electromagnetic states of the infinite photonic crystal. The resonant mode structure of finite-size aggregates is shown to be insensitive to random displacements of particles off the perfect lattice positions as large as half-radius of the particle. The results were obtained by an efficient numerical method, which relates the density of resonant states to the the scattering coefficients of the electromagnetic scattering problem. Generalized multisphere Mie (GMM) solution was used to obtain scattering matrix elements. These results are important to miniature photonic crystal design as well as understanding of light localization in dense random media.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Statistics of transmission in one-dimensional disordered systems: universal characteristics of states in the fluctuation tails

We numerically study the distribution function of the conductance (transmission) in the one-dimensional tight-binding Anderson and periodic-on-average superlattice models in the region of fluctuation states where single parameter scaling is not valid. We show that the scaling properties of the distribution function depend upon the relation between the system's length $L$ and the length $l_s$ determined by the integral density of states. For long enough systems, $L \gg l_s$, the distribution can still be described within a new scaling approach based upon the ratio of the localization length $l_{loc}$ and $l_s$. In an intermediate interval of the system's length $L$, $l_{loc}\ll L\ll l_s$, the variance of the Lyapunov exponent does not follow the predictions of the central limit theorem and this scaling becomes invalid.Comment: 22 pages, 12 eps figure