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Acta Physica Sinica

Spontaneous emission field excited by an atom near the μ-negative metamaterials slab

Li Qin, Li Ze-Ya, Xu Jing-Ping, Liwei Zhang, Yang Ya-Ping

Published Jan 1, 2015• 0 citations

Abstract

This paper discusses the spontaneous emission field of a two-level atom near a μ-negative metamaterial(MNG) slab, in which the surface modes are excited. the μ-negative metamaterial is a kind of artificial-microstructured materials possessing effective negative permeability and positive permittivity. According to Maxwell's equations and boundary conditions, the MNG slab supports only TE-polarized surface modes.We analyze the properties of the surface mode, i.e.the number of the surface mode and its symmetry or antisymmetry profiles, supported by the MNG slab with different permeability and thickness, and then study the influence of these characteristics on the spatial distribution of the spontaneous emission field in detail. Results show that the distance between the atom and the slab can affect the ratio of surface mode to the total atomic emission field. When the surface mode plays the dominate role, the spontaneous emission field of the atom on the nearest surface of MNG slab are directionally propagating along y-axis if the atomic dipole is along x-axis due to the TE-polarized surface mode. The atomic emission field on the other surface depends on the symmetry of the surface modes and their percentage. If the symmetric and antisymmetric surface modes coexist, the field intensity on the right surface is weakened or even disappears completely, but if there exists only symmetric or antisymmetric surface mode, the field intensity on the right surface is nearly identical with that on the left surface. These phenomena are significantly different from the case of atoms near a metal slab or a dielectric slab. Our results are useful for the controllable atomic emission and have potential application to the single-photon source.

DOI: 10.7498/aps.64.014206

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This paper discusses the spontaneous emission field of a two-level atom near a μ-negative metamaterial(MNG) slab, in which the surface modes are excited. the μ-negative metamaterial is a kind of artificial-microstructured materials possessing effective negative permeability and positive permittivity. According to Maxwell's equations and boundary conditions, the MNG slab supports only TE-polarized surface modes.We analyze the properties of the surface mode, i.e.the number of the surface mode and its symmetry or antisymmetry profiles, supported by the MNG slab with different permeability and thickness, and then study the influence of these characteristics on the spatial distribution of the spontaneous emission field in detail. Results show that the distance between the atom and the slab can affect the ratio of surface mode to the total atomic emission field. When the surface mode plays the dominate role, the spontaneous emission field of the atom on the nearest surface of MNG slab are directionally propagating along y-axis if the atomic dipole is along x-axis due to the TE-polarized surface mode. The atomic emission field on the other surface depends on the symmetry of the surface modes and their percentage. If the symmetric and antisymmetric surface modes coexist, the field intensity on the right surface is weakened or even disappears completely, but if there exists only symmetric or antisymmetric surface mode, the field intensity on the right surface is nearly identical with that on the left surface. These phenomena are significantly different from the case of atoms near a metal slab or a dielectric slab. Our results are useful for the controllable atomic emission and have potential application to the single-photon source.

The spontaneous decay and quantum interference of a

\mathsf{V}

-type Zeeman atom placed near a $\ensuremath{\mu}$-negative metamaterial (MNG) slab are investigated. Based on the fact that MNG slab supports only TE-polarized surface-plasmon polariton (SPP) modes, the decay rate of the dipole component parallel to the interface would be much larger than that normal to the interface, because one can couple while another decouple to TE modes. Consequently, high-level anisotropic environment is created and the two dipoles can interfere with each other strongly by sharing such SPP modes even if they are orthogonal. In our work, we analyze the influence of the parameters of the MNG slab as well as the atomic location on the interference intensity in detail. In addition, the dissipation of the slab is considered, and the quantum interference is still excellent even with large absorption.

The spontaneous emission properties of a two-level emitter embedded in a negative permeability slab near the interface between a negative permeability slab and a negative permittivity slab are investigated. When the impedances of the two slabs are matched and the dissipation of the material is small, the structure forms a very good single-mode cavity for surface plasmons. The extremely high local density of states of surface plasmons results in ultrastrong coupling between the atom and the surface plasmons, and then large vacuum Rabi frequency. A damped vacuum Rabi oscillation occurs in the dynamic evolution of the excited atom close to the interface. The atomic emission spectrum displays an asymmetric two-peak structure with the peak separation equal to the vacuum Rabi frequency.

Spontaneous decay of a two-level atom near the left-handed material (LHM) slab is investigated. The contributions of the guided modes and the surface-plasmon polariton (SPP) modes supported by the LHM slab to the spontaneous decay are studied at length. We find that the atomic decay near a LHM slab is much different from that near a dielectric slab or metal slab. The first---the dielectric slab with arbitrary thickness---supports at least two guided modes (one for TE polarized and one for TM polarized), but LHM slab may support none of the guided mode for certain thickness. The second---the atom near the LHM slab---may decay through both TE- and TM-polarized SPP, but the atom near the metal slab can decay only through TM-polarized SPP. The third, when the LHM slab supports only TE-polarized SPP modes, the atom near such slab cannot couple to the SPP mode when its dipole moment is perpendicular to the interface. Even if LHM contains weak loss, above analysis is also valid, and the decay rate directly related to material's losses (defined by the decay through dissipation here) can be distinguished from the total decay rate. Most interesting, we find that the decay through SPP will be larger than the decay through dissipation when the atom is placed at an appropriate position. Our results will give constructive reference to the design and fabrication of the quantum device made of LHM.

We have theoretically investigated the process of spontaneous emission of initially excited two-level atom inside and outside of ultra-thin dielectric film. Dielectric medium is considered as discrete-continuous system of interacting dipoles. For the solution of this boundary problem of quantum optics we use Heisenberg equations for atomic operators. Mode functions of ultra-thin film are calculated by direct solution of integro-differential field equation. Coordinate dependences of excited state life time are analyzed and it is shown that consideration of near-field effect may essentially change spectral properties of the atoms located at small distances from the surface.

Abstract The electromagnetic field is quantized on the basis of the complete set of spatial modes of a plane dielectric slab of arbitrary thickness and refractive index but infinite transverse dimensions, located in otherwise empty three-dimensional space. The vacuum field fluctuations and spontaneous emission rates are evaluated as functions of position both inside and outside the slab. The source-field operator is derived for emission by atoms inside the slab, in the direction perpendicular to its surfaces. Particular attention is given to the possibility of suppressing spontaneous emission by placing atoms in, or close to, a dielectric slab.

The spontaneous emission of photons by an atom placed near the dielectric slab is analyzed using global free electromagnetic modes, satisfying necessary continuity conditions at the slab boundaries. These modes include the modes extended over the whole space (traveling) and the modes trapped to a waveguide formed by the slab (trapped). To describe angular properties of spontaneous emission a parametrization of the traveling modes by the outgoing waves has been proposed. Angular characteristics of the traveling photon emission, distributions of the trapped photon emission, as well as global decay rates have been calculated using the quantum approach and standard perturbation theory. Enhancement and suppression of radiative decay rates in various configurations have been shown. A certain calculational error in an earlier paper by Khosravi and Loudon [Proc. R. Soc. London Ser. A 436, 373 (1992)] affecting thin slabs and results near waveguide-mode thresholds has been improved.