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Soviet Journal of Quantum Electronics

Quantum optics and vacuum confinement of modes in a microscopic cavity

F. De Martini

Published Jun 30, 1988• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A description is given of several novel experimental methods for quantum-electrodynamic vacuum confinement of emission modes close to a single electromagnetic boundary and in a microscopic Fabry–Perot optical cavity of length of the same order of magnitude as the wavelength of the recorded radiation. Strong anomalies (Purcell effect) of the spontaneous emission process and of a phase transition with spontaneous–stimulated decay of states in the stimulated emission process are demonstrated experimentally. It is shown that in the context of the phase transition theory an active microscopic cavity behaves as a superconductor with an extremely high critical transition temperature. This unusual behavior can be interpreted as a manifestation of a perturbation induced in a quantum system by "measurement apparatus" of dimensions comparable with the de Broglie wavelength of a test particle.

DOI
10.1070/qe1988v018n06abeh012289

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A description is given of several novel experimental methods for quantum-electrodynamic vacuum confinement of emission modes close to a single electromagnetic boundary and in a microscopic Fabry–Perot optical cavity of length of the same order of magnitude as the wavelength of the recorded radiation. Strong anomalies (Purcell effect) of the spontaneous emission process and of a phase transition with spontaneous–stimulated decay of states in the stimulated emission process are demonstrated experimentally. It is shown that in the context of the phase transition theory an active microscopic cavity behaves as a superconductor with an extremely high critical transition temperature. This unusual behavior can be interpreted as a manifestation of a perturbation induced in a quantum system by "measurement apparatus" of dimensions comparable with the de Broglie wavelength of a test particle.
Several experimental schemes of vacuum-confinement in electromagnetic-bounded structures are presented together with related results involving Spontaneously Emitting (SE) molecules. Striking anomalies in the SE spatial-distribution and decay-times are detected. In addition, an anomalous "zero-threshold-laser" behaviour of molecular Stimulated Emission (StE) in a single-mode Casimir-type microscopic cavity is reported. This novel effect is due to an unexpected collective molecular process taking place at an exceedingly low excitation level in the optical-pumping scheme. In the framework of "Phase-transition" theory this effect corresponds to an order-disorder transition taking place at a critical-temperature T c which is virtually infinite.
The process of the spontaneous emission (SpE) from an active microscopic cavity (microcavity) is shown with emphasis on mirror separation of the order of the optical wavelength. The relevant effects of SpE enhancement and inhibition, non-exponential decay, and emission anisotropy are outlined for a cavity terminated by mirrors bearing either metal -- or semiconductor -- multilayered coatings. Finally, an experiment regarding the possibility of detecting the field distribution within the cavity of the emission wavelength is shown.
In an active ``microcavity'' the condition of maximum ``enhancement'' of spontaneous emission corresponds to resonant coupling of atoms with a single field mode. We demonstrate that this exceptional condition results in the effective cancellation of spontaneous emission, in the onset of stimulated emission at exceedingly low excitation levels, and in an anomalously high stimulated-emission gain. In the context of phase-transition theory the active microcavity behaves as a statistical ensemble undergoing an order-disorder transition at an extremely high value of the critical temperature.
In recent papers we have reported the first proposal and realization of the “microscopic cavity” (or “microcavity”) i.e. with relevant dimension d~d = (λ/2) where λ is the wavelength of the cavity-confined radiation (1). By this apparatus the Spontaneous-Emission (SE) inhibition-enhancement process in molecular physics (“Purcell effect”) has been demonstrated at optical frequencies (1). In the present work we report the demonstration that the phase of (SE) “enhancement” (i.e. d=d) is actually nonexistent in a microcavity as (SE) is overcome and merges into Stimulated-Emission (StE) at exceedingly low levels of molecular excitation, thus realizing, for the first time in Optics, a “Zero-Threshold-Laser” action. This is a direct consequence of the peculiar and novel condition of Quantutm-Statistical-Electrodynamics offered by the microcavity and consisiting of a resonant single-mode field-atom interaction. Assume that an atom or molecule with an homogeneous-broadened resonance at λ and linewidth Δλ = (λ·Δv/v), placed in a microcavity, emits a fluorescence photon at time t=to, and suppose that this is the only photon present in the cavity at that time.