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arXiv:1703.10406 · Physical Review A

Control of spontaneous emission of a single quantum emitter through a time-modulated photonic-band-gap environment

Giuseppe Calajò, Lucia Rizzuto, Roberto Passante

Published Aug 1, 2017• 21 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider the spontaneous emission of a two-level quantum emitter, such as an atom or a quantum dot, in a modulated time-dependent environment with a photonic band gap. An example of such an environment is a dynamical photonic crystal or any other environment with a band gap whose properties are modulated in time, in the effective mass approximation. After introducing our model of a dynamical photonic crystal, we show that it allows new possibilities to control and tailor the physical features of the emitted radiation, specifically its frequency spectrum. In the weak-coupling limit and in an adiabatic case, we obtain the emitted spectrum and we show the appearance of two lateral peaks due to the presence of the modulated environment, separated from the central peak by the modulation frequency. We show that the two side peaks are not symmetric in height, and that their height ratio can be exploited to investigate the density of states of the environment. Our results show that a dynamical environment can give further possibilities to modify the spontaneous emission features, such as its spectrum and emission rate, with respect to a static one. Observability of the phenomena we obtain is discussed, as well as relevance for tailoring and engineering radiative processes.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.96.023802

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We consider the spontaneous emission of a two-level quantum emitter, such as an atom or a quantum dot, in a modulated time-dependent environment with a photonic band gap. An example of such an environment is a dynamical photonic crystal or any other environment with a band gap whose properties are modulated in time, in the effective mass approximation. After introducing our model of a dynamical photonic crystal, we show that it allows new possibilities to control and tailor the physical features of the emitted radiation, specifically its frequency spectrum. In the weak-coupling limit and in an adiabatic case, we obtain the emitted spectrum and we show the appearance of two lateral peaks due to the presence of the modulated environment, separated from the central peak by the modulation frequency. We show that the two side peaks are not symmetric in height, and that their height ratio can be exploited to investigate the density of states of the environment. Our results show that a dynamical environment can give further possibilities to modify the spontaneous emission features, such as its spectrum and emission rate, with respect to a static one. Observability of the phenomena we obtain is discussed, as well as relevance for tailoring and engineering radiative processes.
The spontaneous emission field and spectrum of a two-level atom, located in an isotropic photonic crystal with dynamic band edges, are investigated by means of numeric calculation. The investigation is expected to help comprehend the characteristics of the atomic spontaneous emission in the dynamic photonic crystal, and provide a possible way to control dynamically the spontaneous emission in photonic crystal. The expression of the spontaneous radiation field is obtained without using the far-zone approximation and the Weisskopf-Wigner approximation, and expected to be applicable in other relevant researches. In the investigation, the spontaneous radiation field and spectrum are calculated when the band edge frequency is unmodulated, or modulated by a step function or triangle function. In the unmodulated situation, the radiation field intensity tends to a constant which is equal to the intensity of the localized field component. The radiation field pulse presents a wave packet behavior as propagation distance increases. The components of the radiation field correspond one-to-one to the peaks in the spontaneous radiation spectrum. When the band edge frequency is modulated by step function, the radiation field intensity tends to a steady-state value after the modulation has happened. And the steady-state intensity is affected by the time when the modulation happens. The components of the non-localized field and the frequency of the localized field after modulation depend on the atomic transition frequency and the band edge frequency, and are identical to those in the unmodulated situation with the same parameters. When the band edge frequency is modulated by a triangle function, the field intensity presents a decaying quasi-periodic oscillation after a long enough time. The modulation frequency determines the frequency of the oscillation, and influences the decay rate. The radiation energy becomes sharp peaks around a set of the discrete frequencies which are evenly spaced with the modulation frequency. The central frequency of these frequencies depends on the atomic transition frequency and the value range of the band edge frequency. The modulation initial phase affects the intensity of the radiation field emitted in an initial period of time.
Over the last few decades, the predominant strategies for controlling spontaneous emission have involved tailoring the spatial surroundings of quantum emitters or atoms to create resonant or spatially periodic photonic structures. However, the rise of time-varying photonics has prompted a reevaluation of spontaneous emission in dynamically changing environments, especially within photonic time crystals, where optical properties undergo time-periodic modulation. Here, we apply classical light-matter interaction theory together with Floquet analysis to reveal a substantial enhancement of the spontaneous emission decay rate at the momentum gap frequency in photonic time crystals. Moreover, our findings suggest that photonic time crystals enable a nonequilibrium light-matter interaction process: the spontaneous excitation of an atom from its ground state to an excited state, accompanied by the concurrent emission of a photon, referred to as spontaneous emission excitation.
The spontaneous emission from a V-type three-level atom embedded in an isotropic photonic crystal with dynamic photonic band edge is studied. We consider the situation where the atom interacts with all possible radiation modes, and calculate numerically the evolution of atomic population without using Markov approximation. The calculation method can be used in related researches. In the present paper, we mainly discuss the effects of modulation parameters and the quantum interference on spontaneous emission when the band edge is modulated with step function or triangle function. We hope that the results can contribute to the applications in the dynamic photonic crystal environment in controlling the spontaneous emission via the quantum interference. The results show that in the step-modulated situation, the number of the photon-atom bound dressed states after the modulation has happened depends on atomic transition frequencies and the band edge frequency at that time, and is identical to the one in the unmodulated situation with the same parameters. The long-time evolution of the atomic population is affected by the time when the modulation happens. Depending on the system initial state, after the modulation has happened, the quantum interference can weaken the probability amplitude components corresponding to the photon-atom bound dressed states, and cause the upper-level population to decay quickly from a great value to a value near zero; or on the contrary, it can strengthen the bound dressed states, and make the upper levels retain a high population. In the modulated situation with trigonometric functions, after long enough time, the total upper-level population presents a decaying quasi-periodic oscillation behaviour. And the evolution of the total upper-level population tends to synchronize with the modulation, so the frequency of the quasi-periodic oscillation is approximately equal to the modulation frequency. But, the quantum interference can destroy the synchronization under some conditions. The decay rate of the total upper-level population is affected by the modulation frequency, and also by the initial state of the system and the angle between two dipole moment because of the quantum interference.
Through the picture of dressed states, this paper investigates the spontaneous emission spectrum from a microwave-driven three-level atom embedded in double-band photonic crystals. The physical dynamics of the phase dependent phenomenon are analysed by comparing two models 'upper level coupling' and 'lower level coupling'. When the phase is changed from 0 to π, the variety of spontaneous emission spectra from either of the two models are inverse to each other, in which the relative height and width of the peaks are determined by the density of states in photonic crystals.
The spontaneous emission from a microwave-driven four-level atom embedded in an anisotropic photonic crystal is studied. Due to the modified density of state (DOS) in the anisotropic photonic band gap (PBG) and the coherent control induced by the coupling fields, spontaneous emission can be significantly enhanced when the position of the spontaneous emission peak gets close to the band gap edge. As a result of the closed-loop interaction between the fields and the atom, the spontaneous emission depends on the dynamically induced Autler–Townes splitting and its position relative to the PBG. Interesting phenomena, such as spectral-line suppression, enhancement and narrowing, and fluorescence quenching, appear in the spontaneous emission spectra, which are modulated by amplitudes and phases of the coherently driven fields and the effect of PBG. This theoretical study can provide us with more efficient methods to manipulate the atomic spontaneous emission.
We have theoretically studied the effect of deterministic temporal control of spontaneous emission in a dynamic optical microcavity. We propose a new paradigm in light emission: we envision an ensemble of two-level emitters in an environment where the local density of optical states is modified on a time scale shorter than the decay time. A rate equation model is developed for the excited state population of two-level emitters in a time-dependent environment in the weak coupling regime in quantum electrodynamics. As a realistic experimental system, we consider emitters in a semiconductor microcavity that is switched by free-carrier excitation. We demonstrate that a short temporal increase of the radiative decay rate depletes the excited state and drastically increases the emission intensity during the switch time. The resulting time-dependent spontaneous emission shows a distribution of photon arrival times that strongly deviates from the usual exponential decay: A deterministic burst of photons is spontaneously emitted during the switch event.