arXiv:cond-mat/0204433 · Physical Review Letters
Spontaneous Decay of Excited Atomic States near a Carbon Nanotube
Igor V. Bondarev, Gregory Ya. Slepyan, С. А. Максименко
Abstract
The spontaneous decay process of an excited atom placed inside or outside a carbon nanotube is analyzed. Calculations have been performed for various achiral nanotubes. The effect of the nanotube surface is shown to increase the atomic spontaneous decay rate by up to 6 orders of magnitude compared with that of the same atom in vacuum. This increase is associated with nonradiative decay via surface excitations in the nanotube.