Engineering correlated disorder for tailored light scattering

Abstract

Correlated disorder is known to shape light scattering in ways uncorrelated disorder cannot, from hyperuniform transparency to the structural colors of naturally occurring structures. What has been missing in photonics is a direct link between the disorder and the scattering pattern it produces. Here we show that adding correlated noise to a periodic array splits the scattering pattern into three distinct components: diffraction peaks, a diffuse background, and correlation halos. Often mistaken for broadened diffraction peaks, these halos are in fact independent features: their positions are set by the correlation range, meaning that they can appear between Bragg peaks, and - crucially - they persist far beyond the regime where the diffraction peaks vanish. Shaping the disorder itself offers further control: tuning the noise distribution suppresses selected diffraction peaks, while tuning the correlation statistics moves the halos away from the Bragg positions. This approach reproduces the scattering signatures of natural photonic structures, such as Morpho butterfly wings, and reveals multiple pathways from order to disorder, each with distinct optical properties. It also offers a practical route to inverse design - finding the disorder that produces a desired scattering pattern. This establishes scattering as a designable quantity, expanding the toolkit for metasurfaces and structural colors.