Density of states governs light scattering in photonic crystals

We describe a smooth transition from (fully ordered) photonic crystal to (fully disordered) photonic glass that enables us to make an accurate measurement of the scattering mean free path in nanostructured media and, in turn, establishes the dominant role of the density of states. We have found one order of magnitude chromatic variation in the scattering mean free path in photonic crystals for just $\sim 3$ shift around the band-gap ($\sim 27$ nm in wavelength).