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Physical Review Letters

Photonic Band Structure of Atomic Lattices

D. V. van Coevorden, Rudolf Sprik, A. Tip, Ad Lagendijk

Published Sep 16, 1996• 77 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A calculation of the optical band structure of a three dimensional lattice of resonant two-level atoms in the dipole approximation is presented. The formation of band gaps is exhibited and confirmed by a calculation of the density of states. The band structure can be characterized by two dimensionless parameters. We find a longitudinal polarization mode as well as a class of vacuum modes that are unaltered by the interaction with matter. Numerical calculations are performed for a face centered cubic lattice; other lattices can be evaluated as easily.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.77.2412

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A calculation of the optical band structure of a three dimensional lattice of resonant two-level atoms in the dipole approximation is presented. The formation of band gaps is exhibited and confirmed by a calculation of the density of states. The band structure can be characterized by two dimensionless parameters. We find a longitudinal polarization mode as well as a class of vacuum modes that are unaltered by the interaction with matter. Numerical calculations are performed for a face centered cubic lattice; other lattices can be evaluated as easily.
Quantum electrodynamics of two identical two-level atoms placed within a frequency dispersive medium whose polariton spectrum has a gap due to photon coupling to a medium excitation (exciton, optical phonon, etc.) is studied within the framework of the dipole resonance (rotating-wave) approximation. For finite interatomic distances a polariton-atom bound state lying within the polaritonic gap is shown to be split into a doublet due to an effective atom-atom interaction. Evaluating the splitting as a function of the interatomic separation, we estimate a width of a polariton-impurity band when a system of spatially correlated atoms is present. The results obtained for the case of two atoms are then generalized to the case of an atomic chain (a one-dimensional atomic lattice). The equations describing a propagation of a band polariton are derived and the expressions for the band polariton spectrum and its effective mass are obtained. The model under consideration has quite a general structure and is applied to the case of photonic-band-gap materials as well. Numerical calculations are presented for SiC semiconductors.
Radiative coupling between identical atoms sharing an excitation is studied in media where dispersion creates photonic band gaps, i.e., forbidden bands of light propagation for all directions and polarizations. Photonic band gaps can exist in media whose dielectric index exhibits strong three-dimensionally periodic modulations (``photonic crystals'') or in bands of polaritonic media. It is shown that the resonant dipole-dipole interaction as well as cooperative fluorescence of two-atom systems can be strongly enhanced or suppressed, to the extent of being essentially eliminated, by one of the following mechanisms: (a) dependence on location of the atoms within a unit cell of a photonic crystal, i.e., sensitivity to the spatial variation of the field normal modes; (b) dependence on the density of normal modes in allowed bands and on the density of virtual (evanescent) modes in band gaps. The ability to suppress the dipole-dipole interactions at interatomic separations characterizing quasimolecules would have far-reaching implications on their dissociative or collisional dynamics, spectroscopy, and rates of energy transfer.
Based on the narrow linewidth ${}^{1}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{S}_{0}\ensuremath{-}{}^{3}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{P}_{1}$ transition of the bosonic 88{}^{88}88Sr atom, we investigate the dispersion relation for light propagating in a three-dimensional (3D) atomic dipolar lattice. Two factors determine the presence of the photonic band gap (PBG): lattice geometry and the atomic polarization. For a two-level atomic system, the former factor plays a major role. An omnidirectional PBG is predicted in the non-Bravais diamond lattice while no PBG exists in the Bravais lattices. However, since a PBG happens around the resonant ${}^{1}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{S}_{0}\ensuremath{-}{}^{3}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{P}_{1}$ line, the probe beam suffers a significant atomic absorption, which is the major drawback in Bragg scattering. We propose applying an external field to couple the atomic ${}^{3}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{P}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{}^{3}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{D}_{1}$ transition so as to modify the atomic polarization of the ${}^{1}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{S}_{0}\ensuremath{-}{}^{3}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{P}_{1}$ transition. In the three level ${}^{1}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{S}_{0}\ensuremath{-}{}^{3}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{P}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{}^{3}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{D}_{1}$ atomic system, the atomic polarization strongly affects the band structure besides the lattice geometry. Dual PBGs can exist in simple cubic and face-centered cubic lattices, but the original PBG, in the diamond lattice composed of the two-level atoms, vanishes. Meanwhile, since two PBGs can be pushed far away from the atomic resonant ${}^{1}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{S}_{0}\ensuremath{-}{}^{3}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{P}_{1}$ line, the atomic absorption is significantly suppressed, which enhances the reflection efficiency in Bragg scattering.
We present a quantum model of two-level atoms localized in a three-dimensional lattice based on the Hopfield polariton theory. In addition to a polaritonic gap at the excitation energy, a photonic band gap opens up at the Brillouin zone boundary. Upon tuning the lattice period or angle of incidence to match the photonic gap with the excitation energy, one obtains a combined polaritonic and photonic gap as a generalization of Rabi splitting. For typical experimental parameters, the size of the combined gap is on the order of $25\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, up to 105{10}^{5}105 times the detuned gap size. The dispersion curve contains a branch supporting slow-light modes with vanishing probability density of atomic excitations.
Introduction The propagation of light in periodically ordered photonic crystals bears a strong analogy to the wave propagation of conduction electrons in atomic crystals. The development of Bloch modes and dispersion are determined by the interference of waves that are diffracted by lattice planes [19, 52]. The periodicity commensurate with the wavelength (a ≈ λ/2) gives rise to Bragg diffraction that is associated with frequency windows for which waves are forbidden to propagate in a particular direction. Such stop gaps have long been known to arise for electromagnetic waves, notably for X-rays in atomic crystals [214]. At optical frequencies, the stop gaps that occur in one-dimensional periodic structures, known as Bragg stacks, are widely used in optical laboratories as broadband highly reflecting dielectric mirrors [556]. The distinguishing feature of three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals is that a common stop gap can be achieved for all directions and for all polarizations simultaneously: the widely pursued 3D photonic band gap . Historically a 3D band gap has never been considered for the propagation of X-rays in periodic media, since a gap requires a high refractive index contrast of order unity, whereas the refractive index varies by less then 10 −4 in the X-ray range. At frequencies inside the 3D photonic band gap, the density of optical states (DOS) completely vanishes. As the density of states can also be interpreted as the density of vacuum fluctuations [334], a 3D band gap thus serves as an effective shield to these fluctuations. The total absence of optical modes in a photonic band gap has implications beyond classical optics that break the analogy between the behavior of light in photonic crystals and the behavior of electrons in atomic crystals. 3D photonic band gap crystals play an important role in cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED) [64, 549], where they offer at least five prospects for new physics. Firstly, probably the most eagerly pursued phenomenon is the complete inhibition of spontaneous emission: an excited quantum emitter – such as an atom, molecule, or quantum dot – embedded in a crystal with its transition frequency tuned to within the 3D band gap remains forever excited since it cannot decay to the ground state by emitting a photon.
We study photonic band gaps in a one-dimensional optical lattice of laser-cooled trapped atoms. We solve for the self-consistent equilibrium positions of the atoms, accounting for the backaction of the atoms on the trapping beams. This solution depends strongly on the sign of the trapping laser detuning. For red-detuned trapping lasers, the resulting lattice exhibits a one-dimensional photonic band gap for frequencies between the trapping laser frequency and the atomic resonance. For blue detuning the stop band extends symmetrically about resonance, typically for hundreds of atomic linewidths, except for the small region between atomic resonance and the lattice frequency, which is excluded. We calculate the reflection spectrum for a lattice of Cs atoms for various trapping laser detunings and interpret its behavior as a function of the lattice size and density. For a mean density of 1011{10}^{11}1011 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3}$, and 1000 planes, 55% reflection of a weak probe beam should be observed. We also consider Bragg scattering in a three-dimensional optical lattice as a means of probing the long-range order in the atomic density correlation function.