Decay kinetic properties of a two-level atom near the band edges of photonic crystals (PCs) with absolute gaps are studied based on the Green's function expression for the evolution operator. The local coupling strength between the photons and an atom is evaluated by an exact numerical method. It is found that the decay behavior of an excited atom can be fundamentally changed by the variation of the atomic position: Weisskopf-Wigner and non-Weisskopf-Wigner decay phenomena occur at different atomic positions in the PCs as a result of a significant difference in the local coupling strength. Our finding implies that it is possible to engineer the luminescence spectrum by controlling the atomic position.
Decay kinetic properties of a two-level atom near the band edges of photonic crystals (PCs) with absolute gaps are studied based on the Green's function expression for the evolution operator. The local coupling strength between the photons and an atom is evaluated by an exact numerical method. It is found that the decay behavior of an excited atom can be fundamentally changed by the variation of the atomic position: Weisskopf-Wigner and non-Weisskopf-Wigner decay phenomena occur at different atomic positions in the PCs as a result of a significant difference in the local coupling strength. Our finding implies that it is possible to engineer the luminescence spectrum by controlling the atomic position.
The characteristics of the decay kinetics of a two-level atom near the band edges of photonic crystals with absolute gaps are analyzed. It is found that the decay behavior of an excited atom can be fundamentally changed by the variation of the atomic position: the Weisskopf-Wigner and non-Weisskopf-Wigner decay phenomena occur at different atomic positions as a result of a significant difference in the local coupling strength between the photons and an atom. Our finding implies that it is possible to tailor luminescence spectra by controlling the atomic position.
Motivated by the significant controversy between the two dispersion models and Weisskopf-Wigner approximation (WWA), for the first time to our knowledge, we introduce the position-dependent photon-atom interaction into the Green function method of the evolution operator and develop a universal theoretical treatment on spontaneous emission of atoms in photonic crystals (PCs). A position-sensitive generalized Lorentzian formulism (non-Lorentzian shape) for the decay of an excited atom in PCs is derived, an exact numerical method for calculating the local coupling strength, proportional to the photonic local density of state (LDOS), is presented. For weak interaction PCs with pseudo gaps, the generalized Lorentzian formulism may be reduced to the famous Lorentzian spectrum. In this case, we introduced a lifetime distribution function for an assembly of atoms and found that the lifetime distribution strongly depend on the spread configuration of these atoms in space, which clarifies successfully the tremendous discrepancy between different experiments. For the PCs with large full gaps, we found that the atomic position can fundamentally change the decay behavior of an excited atom: in strong interaction positions, the atomic decay is non-classical or exhibits an envelope-damped Rabi oscillation, while in weak interaction positions the WWA is valid. Recently, we also predicted giant Lamb shifts for hydrogen atoms in PCs, and revealed that in inhomogeneous electromagnetic environment, the dominant contribution to the Lamb shift comes from real photon emission, while the contribution from emission and reabsorption of virtual photon is negligible, in vast contrast with the case of free space where the virtual photon processes play a key role.
Being motivated by the controversial results based on two dispersion models and Weisskopf–Wigner approximation (WWA), we introduce, for the first time to our knowledge, the position-dependent photon-atom interaction into the Green function method of the evolution operator and develop a universal theoretical approach to study spontaneous emission of atoms in photonic crystals (PCs). A position-sensitive generalized Lorentzian formalism (non-Lorentzian shape) for the decay of an excited atom in PCs is derived, and an exact numerical method for calculating the local coupling strength, proportional to the photonic local density of state (LDOS), is presented. For weak interaction PCs with pseudo gaps, the generalized Lorentzian formalism may be reduced to the famous Lorentzian spectrum. In this case, we introduce a lifetime distribution function for an assembly of atoms and find that it depends strongly on the atomic configuration in space, which clarifies successfully the tremendous discrepancy between different experiments. For the PCs with large full gaps, we find that the atomic position can fundamentally change the decay behavior of an excited atom: in strong interaction positions, the atomic decay is non-classical or exhibits an envelope-damped Rabi oscillation, while in weak interaction positions the WWA is valid. Recently, we also predicted giant Lamb shifts for hydrogen atoms in PCs, and revealed that in inhomogeneous electromagnetic environment, the dominant contribution to the Lamb shift comes from real photon emission, while the contribution from emission and reabsorption of virtual photon is negligible, in vast contrast with the case of free space where the virtual photon processes play a key role.
We investigate spontaneous emission from a two-level atom embedded in photonic crystals. Due to the photon localization and the quantum interference between the two dressed states, some changes of the radiation field happen, and the energy is transferred among the excited atom, the localized field, the propagating field and the diffusion field. If there is a localized field, it appears quasi-oscillation behaves of the population evolution in the excited level. If there isn't a localized field, it appears no quasi-oscillation. Moreover, there have some steady-state trapped atom populations in the excited level, and the spontaneous emission spectrum near the forbidden gap edge is different from that in the vacuum. All these characteristics depend not only on the relative position of the excited level from the band-edge but also on the photon density of states (or the band-edge smoothing parameter) near the band edge.
Spontaneous emission from a two-level atom embedded in photonic crystals was investigated in this paper. Due to the photon localization and the quantum interference between the two dressed states, some changes in the radiation field take place: when the excited level moves from the gap to the band, the energy of the localized field is transferred to the propagating field through the diffusion field. If the localized field and the propagating field could coexist, the population evolution in the excited level would exhibit quasi-oscillation behavior. If they could not coexist, there would be no quasi-oscillation. The steady-state trapped atom population in the excited level is changed also. All these characteristics depend not only on the relative position δ of the excited level ω _1 with respect to the band-edge ω _c but also on the photon density of states ρ(ω_k) (or the band-edge smoothing parameter e ) near the band edge.