Tolerance of photonic crystal impurity bands to disorder of defects in coupled cavity waveguides

We investigate the tolerance of photonic crystal impurity bands to the disorder of defects in one-dimensional coupled cavity waveguides. Although impurity bands formed by defect modes close to the air band are quasiflat in the absence of disorder, they are easily deteriorated when disorders are introduced into defects. In contrast, impurity bands created by defect modes near the dielectric band are less sensitive to disorder in the defect size. It is found that the sensitivity of defect mode frequency to defect size and the quality factor of defect modes are two crucial factors in determining the tolerance of impurity bands to the disorder of defects.