We present a method, based on the coherent potential approximation, for the treatment of disorder in photonic crystals. We apply the method to the study of light absorption by a three-dimensional array of plasma spheres distributed randomly in a host dielectric medium. We find that the effect of disorder on the absorbance of a thick slab of the material consisting of many layers of spheres is much less pronounced than in the corresponding case of a single layer of spheres.

• Received 22 June 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.61.8099