The control of spontaneous emission from a three-level atom in an anisotropic photonic crystal with two asymmetric bands

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the spontaneous emission light of an excited three-level atom embedded in an anisotropic photonic crystal with two asymmetric bands. The property of spontaneous emission relating to the atomic position in a unit cell of the crystal is described with a position-dependent phase difference. The atomic transition in free space can be manipulated by the other associated transition coupling to photonic crystal. The result shows that the spontaneous emission spectra are effectively shifted and tuned by the atomic position-dependent phase, which results in the asymmetric distribution of the photonic density of states between two bands, and the increasing band can push the emitted light towards the other band. The physical process can be further illuminated through analyzing the emitted field in photonic crystal. The result perhaps offers an interesting route towards tunable photonic devices.