Anderson localization of light near boundaries of disordered photonic lattices

Jovic DM, Kivshar YS, Denz C, Belic MR

Abstract

We study numerically the effect of boundaries on Anderson localization of light in truncated two-dimensional photonic lattices in a nonlinear medium. We demonstrate suppression of Anderson localization at the edges and corners, so that stronger disorder is needed near the boundaries to obtain the same localization as in the bulk. We find that the level of suppression depends on the location in the lattice (edge vs corner), as well as on the strength of disorder. We also discuss the effect of nonlinearity on various regimes of Anderson localization.