STRONG LOCALIZATION OF LIGHT IN 2-DIMENSIONAL DISORDERED DIELECTRIC MEDIA

By numerically integrating Maxwell's equations in space and time we study the propagation of light of frequency omega emitted radially from a line source in an infinite dielectric medium with transverse disorder. i.e. disorder in only the two directions perpendicular to the line source. We show that such a system displays strong localization of light by demonstrating that the electromagnetic energy stored between consecutive pairs of cylinders, of radii m-DELTA-R and (m + 1)DELTA-R, where m=0, 1, 2, ..., centered on the line source decreases exponentially with increasing m. This behavior contrasts with the lack of exponential decay in the stored electromagnetic energy as a function of m-DELTA-R when the line source is embedded in a dielectric medium that is periodic in each of the two directions perpendicular to it.