Modification of the Electromagnetic Field in the Photonic Crystal Medium and New Ways of Applying the Photonic Band Gap Materials

Abstract

Photonic crystals (PCs) are periodic systems that consist of dielectrics with different refractive indices. Photonic crystals have many potential technological applications. These applications are mainly based on the photonic bang gap effect. However the band gap is not only effect that follows from the periodic changing of the refractive index in the photonic crystal. The periodic change of the photon-matter interaction in photonic crystal medium gives rise to the fact that the mass of an electron in the photonic crystal must differ from its mass in vacuum. Anisotropy of a photonic crystal results in the dependence of the electromagnetic mass correction on the orientation of the electron momentum in a photonic crystal. This orientation dependence in turn gives rise to the significant correction to the transition frequencies in an atom placed in air voids of a photonic crystal. These corrections are shown to be comparable to the atomic optical frequencies. This effect allows one to control the structure of the atomic energy levels and hence to control resonance processes. It can serve as the basis for new line spectrum sources. The effect provides new ways of realization of quantum interference between decay channels that can be important for quantum information science.