The conductance of photons in two-dimensional disordered photonic crystals is calculated using an exact multipole–plane wave method that includes all multiple scattering processes. Conductance fluctuations, the universal nature of which has been established for electrons in the diffusive regime, are studied for photons, in both principal polarizations and for varying disorder. Our simulations show that universal conductance fluctuations can be observed in $H_{\Vert }$ (TE) polarization for weak and intermediate disorder while, for $E_{\Vert }$ (TM) polarization, we show that the conductance variance is essentially independent of sample size but strongly dependent on disorder. The probability distribution of the conductance is also calculated in the diffusive and localized regimes, and also at their transition, for which the distributions for both polarizations are seen to be very similar.

• Received 10 September 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.71.036623