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Chinese Physics Letters

Characteristics of Spontaneous Emission of Polarized Atoms in Metal–Dielectric Multiple Layer Structures

Zhao Li-Ming, Ben–Yuan Gu, Yun‐Song Zhou

Published Oct 17, 2007• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The spontaneous emission (SE) progress of polarized atoms in a stratified structure of air–dielectric(D0)–metal(M)–dielectric(D1)–air can be controlled effectively by changing the thickness of the D1 layer and rotating the polarized direction of atoms. It is found that the normalized SE rate of atoms located inside the D0 layer crucially depends on the atomic position and the thickness of the D1 layer. When the atom is located near the D0–M interface, the normalized atomic SE rate as a function of the atomic position is abruptly onset for the thin D1 layer. However, with the increasing thickness of the D1 layer, the corresponding curve profile exhibits plateau and stays nearly unchanged. The substantial change of the SE rate stems from the excitation of the surface plasmon polaritons in metal-dielectric interface, and the feature crucially depends on the thickness of D1 layer. If atoms are positioned near the D0–air interface, the substantial variation of the normalized SE rate appears when rotating the polarized direction of atoms. These findings manifest that the atomic SE processes can be flexibly controlled by altering the thickness of the dielectric layer D1 or rotating the orientation of the polarization of atoms.

DOI
10.1088/0256-307x/24/11/033

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Abstract Analytic expressions of a previous paper, for the width of the excited state of an atom in presence of a dielectric interface are integrated numerically for two different types of material medium viz. a metal and the one involving phonorus such as GaP. In each case there is a very large transition probability that the atom decays with the emission of an appropriate surface polariton. It is also found that the diffuse contribution to the width closely related to the irradiated power is much smaller than the surface polariton contribution. The influence of the damping of the dielectric function on the width of the atomic states as well as the surface plasmon‐polariton contribution to frequency shifts for a metal are studied.
Surface plasmon polaritons are charge density waves of electrons in a metal, which are coupled to an electromagnetic field at a metal-dielectric interface. The electro- magnetic field associated with surface plasmons is confined, resulting in increased field intensities near the interface. Optical emitters placed near a metal film interact strongly with the surface plasmon modes present, not only modifying the radiation rates, but also the radiation profile. These emitters may be used to store and process information, and understanding their behaviour in the presence of a lossy metal film is important in determining the advantages and limitations of using surface plasmons. In this thesis, we wish to understand how we can optically control atoms by exploring two physical phenomena: first, the influence of surface plasmons on collective effects in an ensemble of emitters. Secondly, the single photon excitation of an emitter near a metal film. In the first case, we analyze the collective radiative behaviour of multiple classical emitters near a metal film that radiatively couple to the far-field through surface plasmon modes. We demonstrate that the contributions of dipolar image charges within the metal film significantly affect the cooperative emission of nearby sources, generating sub- and super-radiant emission that can be controlled with a suitably detuned external driving field. In the second case, we determine the excitation probability of an atom near a metal film by a single photon pulse that is time reversed. Using a quantum electro- dynamic description of absorbing dielectrics, we show that non-radiative decay will limit the excitation probability to about half of the maximum that could be achieved in the absence of losses.