Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Optical emission in periodic dielectrics

Rudolf Sprik, Bart A. van Tiggelen, Ad Lagendijk

Published Aug 1, 1996• 215 citations

Abstract

We show rigorously that the coefficient for spontaneous emission of an atom placed in a dielectric is proportional to the local radiative density of states—that is only a part of the local density of the eigenmodes of the Maxwell equations. Spontaneous emission is inhibited if the atom is located at a position where this local radiative density is small, even if the total density of states is not vanishing. This radiative density of states can be obtained without having to perform a full quantum calculation of the radiation-matter system. We demonstrate this principle by solving numerically a scalar model for a dielectric that consists of a lattice of resonating dipoles.

DOI: 10.1209/epl/i1996-00564-y

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