Multiple scattering of light in three-dimensional photonic quasicrystals

Recent experiments on three-dimensional icosahedral dielectric photonic quasicrystals have shown several unexpected features: transmitted femtosecond pulses developed a trailing “diffusive” exponential tail and the sum of (zeroth-order) transmittance and reflectance was well below unity. These experimental findings have previously been ascribed to sample imperfections. Here, we analyze these findings by using 3D periodic approximants of the ideal photonic quasicrystals. We show that the experimental observations can be explained in terms of multiple scattering of light within these structures, i.e., in terms of intrinsic rather than purely extrinsic quasicrystal properties.