Orientation-dependent spontaneous emission rates of a two-level quantum emitter in any nanophotonic environment

Abstract

We study theoretically the spontaneous emission rate of a two-level quantum emitter in any nanophotonic system. We derive a general representation of the rate on the orientation of the transition dipole by only invoking symmetry of the Green function. The rate depends quadratically on orientation and is determined by rates along three principal axes, which greatly simplifies visualization: emission rate surfaces provide insight on how preferred orientations for enhancement ͑or inhibition͒ depend on emission frequency and location, as shown for a mirror, a plasmonic sphere, and a photonic band-gap crystal. Moreover, insight is provided on means to "switch" the emission rates by actively controlling the orientation of the emitters' transition dipole.

Highly anisotropic decay rate of single quantum dots in photonic crystal membranes

“…Our measurement results on one hand prove the existence of two orthogonally oriented dipoles in self-assembled single QDs [3], and on the other hand demonstrate the large anisotropy of the vacuum electromagnetic field inside PCMs [2], which is a crucial condition for achieving quantum interference effects with two closely lying energy levels [4], potentially enabling many fascinating phenomena, such as coherent population trapping, spectral narrowing, phase-dependent line shapes, quantum beats etc. Therefore, our experiment is not only vital in realizing complete control of the SE of single QDs with PCs, but also important for fundamental studies in quantum optics, e.g.…”

“…Since the idea of making use of photonic crystals to control SE was put forward by Yablonovitch [1], it has attracted considerable interest. Recently, a strong orientation dependence of SE rates of emitters in any nanophotonic environment has been predicted [2]. However, so far, no experimental demonstration has been reported.…”

“…Among them, only the bright states are optically active. Due to the low symmetry of self-assembled quantum dots and anisotropic exchange interactions, the two bright states are separated in energy (typically 0-30 µeV and are usually denoted as X or Y states according to their dipole orientations ([110] or [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]). The X and Y states decay independently and each follows a bi-exponential function [3].…”

High effective sensors based on photonic crystals

“…They diffract visible and near-infrared light assigned to the submicrometer diameters of colloids. Although the colloidal crystals have not a full PBG but a pseudogap due to the inevitable crystal defects generated during the assembly process and the low reflective indices of the colloidal spheres, the period structure is good enough for certain types of quantum optical phenomena [8,[13][14][15], as shown Figure 1(b). The colloidal crystals have shown their ability in prohibiting photon propagation in certain directions [16][17][18][19], improving optical switches [20,21], and optimizing the emission properties of active materials in the lattice structures [22].…”

Increased upconversion quantum yield in photonic structures due to local field enhancement and modification of the local density of states – a simulation-based analysis

“…The conventional photoluminescence (emission wavelength longer than the absorption wavelength) in photonic structures has been thoroughly investigated [20][21][22]. Additionally, the photoluminescence of rare-earth ions and luminescent quantum dots incorporated in photonic crystal environments has already been investigated experimentally, for example in [23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”