Frustrated Spontaneous Emission near the Edge of a Photonic Band Gap

Abstract

The novel dynamical and spectral features of (single photon) spontaneous emission from an atomic transition near a photonic band edge are investigated by frustrating these features by spontaneous emission through another atomic transition far from the photonic band edge and deep in the photon continuum, the two atomic transitions forming the two dipole-allowed transitions of a three-level atom in a Λ configuration. Though spontaneous emission through the atomic transition far from the photonic band edge (the “far” transition) is not directly affected by the photonic band gap (PBG), it is indirectly affected by the PBG through its coupling to the atomic transition near the photonic band edge (the “near” transition) via the Λ configuration. As a result of this coupling, spontaneous emission through the “far” transition can be used as a probe to measure the strength of the effects of the PBG on spontaneous emission through the “near” transition. We have shown that the effects of the PBG on spontaneous emission via the “near” transition are strongly affected (and, therefore, can be controlled by) not only by the detuning of the “near” transition from photonic band edge but also by the vacuum decay rate of spontaneous emission through the “far” transition which is coupled to the “near” transition through the Λ configuration. In particular, we have shown that the oscillatory behavior of spontaneous emission near a photonic band edge as well as the Autler-Townes doublet of the spontaneous emission spectrum (due to the splitting of the atomic level near the photonic band edge) are strongly dependent on the decay rate of spontaneous emission through the probe transition which is far from the band edge.