Short-range order and near-field effects on optical scattering and structural coloration.

We have investigated wavelength-dependent light scattering in biomimetic structures with short-range order. Coherent backscattering experiments are performed to measure the transport mean free path over a wide wavelength range. Overall scattering strength is reduced significantly due to short-range order and near-field effects. Our analysis explains why single scattering of light is dominant over multiple scattering in similar biological structures and is responsible for color generation.

Synchronization in disordered Josephson junction arrays: small-world connections and the Kuramoto model.

We study synchronization in disordered arrays of Josephson junctions. In the first half of the paper, we consider the relation between the coupled resistively and capacitively shunted junction (RCSJ) equations for such arrays and effective phase models of the Winfree type. We describe a multiple-time-scale analysis of the RCSJ equations for a ladder array of junctions with non-negligible capacitance in which we arrive at a second order phase model that captures well the synchronization physics of the RCSJ equations for that geometry. In the second half of the paper, motivated by recent work on small-world networks, we study the effect on synchronization of random, long-range connections between pairs of junctions. We consider the effects of such shortcuts on ladder arrays, finding that the shortcuts make it easier for the array of junctions in the nonzero voltage state to synchronize. In two-dimensional (2D) arrays we find that the additional shortcut junctions are only marginally effective at inducing synchronization of the active junctions. The differences in the effects of shortcut junctions in 1D and 2D can be partly understood in terms of an effective phase model.