Modification of spontaneous emission rate in planar dielectric microcavity structures

Abstract

The spontaneous emission rate and radiation pattern for a thin quantum well sheet enclosed by a one-dimensional dielectric microcavity have been calculated. By placing the sheet in the node (antinode) position of the cavity standing wave, the spontaneous emission in the direction normal to the sheet will be decreased (enhanced). In the former case the theory predicts that the spontaneous lifetime can be increased more than a factor of 10. In the latter case both theory and experiments confirm that such a simple structure can couple a substantial amount (30–90 %) of the spontaneous emission into the cavity resonant mode. In both cases, however, theory predicts that the spontaneous emission lifetime will increase for structures without guided modes.