Spontaneous Emission in Chaotic Cavities

Abstract

The spontaneous emission rate $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ of a two-level atom inside a chaotic cavity fluctuates strongly from one point to another because of fluctuations in the local density of modes. For a cavity with perfectly conducting walls and an opening containing $N$ wave channels, the distribution of $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ is given by $P(\ensuremath{\gamma})\ensuremath{\propto}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{N/2\ensuremath{-}1}(\ensuremath{\gamma}+{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{0}{)}^{\ensuremath{-}N\ensuremath{-}1}$, where ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{0}$ is the free-space rate. For small $N$ the most probable value of $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ is much smaller than the mean value ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{0}$.