Regularity and resilience of short-range order in uniformly randomized lattices

Abstract

Randomly perturbed lattice models play a vital role in the exploration of novel quasi-disordered structures such as disordered photonic crystals that combine the coherent optical effects of crystals and the broadband, isotropic power spectra of disordered media. Recent studies have shown that the Bragg scattering peaks of uniformly randomized lattices can be switch-on and -off by increasing the perturbation strength while preserving the long-range order of the underlying lattice. In this work, we investigate the pair correlation statistics of uniformly randomized lattices focusing on the impact of the perturbations on the system’s short-range order. We find that locally isotropic perturbations generate disordered structures with resilient hyperuniformity and short-range order. The interplay of these two properties has been discovered to be critical in the design of disordered materials with enhanced photonic band gaps and light absorption. The present study provides an alternative approach for designing partially disordered hyperuniform structures.