Fast Generation of Spectrally-Shaped Disorder

Abstract

Media with correlated disorder display unexpected transport properties, but it is still a challenge to design structures with desired spectral features at scale. In this work, we introduce an optimal formulation of this inverse problem by means of the non-uniform fast Fourier transform, thus arriving at an algorithm capable of generating systems with arbitrary spectral properties, with a computational cost that scales $O(N \log N)$ with system size. The method is extended to accommodate arbitrary real-space interactions, such as short-range repulsion, to simultaneously control short- and long-range correlations. We thus generate the largest-ever stealthy hyperuniform configurations in $2d$ ($N = 10^9$) and $3d$ ($N > 10^7$). By an Ewald sphere construction we link the spectral and optical properties at the single-scattering level, and show that these structures in $2d$ and $3d$ generically display transmission gaps, providing a concrete example of fine-tuning of a physical property at will. We also show that large $3d$ power-law hyperuniformity in particle packings leads to single-scattering properties near-identical to those of simple hard spheres. Finally, we show that enforcing large spectral power at a small number of peaks with the right symmetry leads to the non-deterministic generation of quasicrystalline structures in both $2d$ and $3d$.