Physics World

Photonic crystals boost light emission

Misha Boroditsky, Ell Yablonovitch

Published Jul 1, 1997• 6 citations

Abstract

For many years spontaneous emission of light was considered a natural and immutable property of radiating atoms. But we now know that spontaneous emission can be controlled by altering the environment of the atom: for example metal mirror can be placed next to the atom, or it can be enclosed inside metallic cavity or a photonic crystal. In this way, the vacuum fluctuations or zero-point electromagnetic fields in the atom's environment can be manipulated.

DOI: 10.1088/2058-7058/10/7/27

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