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Frontiers in Optics

Inhibition of spontaneous emission via quantum path interference in coupled-cavity microstructures

David P. Fussell, Marc M. Dignam, R. C. McPhedran, C. Martijn de Sterke

Published Jan 1, 2005• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We examine the rate of spontaneous emission in optical microstructures with coupled- cavity resonances. We show that for overlapping resonant modes, the rate can be strongly affected by quantum path interference into the two modes.
DOI
10.1364/fio.2005.fwc4

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We examine theoretically the spontaneous emission rate in optical microstructures with cavity resonances that overlap in both position and frequency. Using projection techniques, we show that the spontaneous emission in such structures can be accurately described by the direct emission and quantum path interference of emission into a few discrete resonant modes, even though the exact infinite-dimensional problem involves a coupling to the continuum of radiation states. Moreover, we obtain an efficient numerical time-domain method for determining the spontaneous emission rate that incorporates these effects, including the suppression of spontaneous emission into some modes.
We consider spontaneous emission in dielectric microcavities with multiple resonances that may overlap in both position and frequency. By projecting the Green tensor onto a set of quasimodes associated with the resonances, we derive the reduced spontaneous emission rate. To demonstrate the accuracy and computational efficiency of our approach, we model spontaneous emission in a two-dimensional photonic crystal with two coupled defects. Employing a quantum mechanical interpretation, we show that the spontaneous emission involves both direct decay into the individual quasimodes and photon transfer between the quasimodes. The quantum path interference between these different emission channels can cause the spontaneous emission rate to differ dramatically from the rate obtained by the summation over resonant line shapes. We also show how our approach can be used to determine the emission into particular quasimodes of multiple-resonance microcavities.
We theoretically discuss spontaneous emission properties of a quantum dot embedded in an ultrahigh-QQQ microcavity, where a detuning between an excitation in the quantum dot and the cavity mode is taken into account. Both weak- and strong-coupling states are obtained under the ultrahigh-QQQ condition. In the high-QQQ weak-coupling case, the spontaneous emission spectrum shows a sharp dip, whose origin is a quantum interference. In the strong-coupling case, there is a region where both the Rabi splitting and the quantum interference contribute on an equal footing, referred to as a crossover region, where the spontaneous emission spectral shape is quite similar to that of the high-QQQ weak-coupling state. The quantum interference is robust against the detuning.
In this work, we show that the quantum interference between two spontaneous emission channels can be greatly enhanced when a three-level V-type quantum emitter is placed near the bismuth chalcogenide ( B i 2 T e 3 ). Namely, we calculated the degree of quantum interference for quantum emitters placed in the vicinity of a planar surface of a B i 2 T e 3 slab, as well as near a B i 2 T e 3 microsphere. We found, in particular, that the degree of quantum interference assumes very high values, for both geometries, which is a result of the strong dependence of the spontaneous emission rate on the orientation of a quantum-emitter dipole relative to the B i 2 T e 3 surface, at the frequencies of polaritonic-type excitations. These particular high values of quantum interference can trigger a variety of phenomena associated with quantum interference of spontaneous-emission channels, such as lasing without inversion, coherent populations trapping, transparency, nonlinearities, and so forth.
Spontaneous emission into micro- or nano-scale structures can be enhanced or inhibited by engineering the local density of optical states using closed quantum cavities. When electromagnetic fields are confined within small mode volumes of a high-Q symmetrical closed quantum cavity, the Purcell effect significantly accelerates the natural spontaneous emission. Due to the statistical nature of spontaneous emission, the emitted fields do not have a well-defined phase; consequently, the emission is incoherent and lacks directional control. The situation becomes more complicated in multi-mode cavities, as selecting a specific mode in a particular direction requires precise detuning between the emitter transition frequency and the cavity mode frequency to ensure strong coupling. In single-mode cavities, only the dominant mode can resonate, and only in a specific direction; thus, an appropriate transition frequency range can be easily determined. Such cavities allow for greater manipulation of the local electromagnetic density of states, facilitating effective control of the direction of spontaneous emission. This property is essential for creating efficient single-photon sources, photonic circuits, and on-chip quantum information.
Spontaneous relaxation of a three-level degenerate scheme is investigated. Two upper levels are coupled by the same quantum mode to the lower level. It is shown that the quantum interference does not modify spontaneous relaxation in free space unless the angular momenta of the upper levels are equal. However in a cavity interference can lead to modified spontaneous emission for any combination of the upper levels. Interaction of the atom with the laser field may lead to complete suppression of spontaneous emission if the lower level is the ground state.