One dimensional disordered photonic structures characterized by uniform distributions of clusters

•1D random photonic structures are modeled by clustering high refractive index layers.•We study the total transmission in the band gap wavelengths of the ordered structure.•We observe a dip of the total transmission for a specific maximum cluster size.•We also observe oscillations of the total transmission with increasing cluster size.

We investigated one dimensional disordered photonic structures by grouping high refractive index layers in clusters, randomly distributed within layers of low refractive index. We control the maximum size of the high refractive layer clusters and the ratio of the high–low refractive index layers, which we call the dilution of the system. By studying the total transmission of the disordered structure within the photonic band gap of the ordered structure as a function of the maximum cluster size, we observe a dip of the total transmission for a specific maximum cluster size. This value increases with increasing dilution. Moreover, within one dilution we observe oscillations of the total transmission with increasing cluster size.