Effect of disorder on photonic band gaps

We study the transmission of electromagnetic waves propagating in three-dimensional disordered photonic crystals that are periodic on the average with a diamond symmetry. The transmission has been calculated using the transfer matrix method. We study two different geometries for the scatterers: spheres and rods connecting nearest neighbors. We find that the gaps of the periodic structure survive to a higher amount of disorder in the rods' case than in the spheres' case. We argue that this is due to the connectivity of the rod structure that exists for any amount of disorder. [S0163-1829(99)04120-X].