Controlling the dynamics of spontaneous emission from quantum dots by photonic crystals

Peter Lodahl (), A. Floris van Driel, Ivan S. Nikolaev, Arie Irman, Karin Overgaag, Daniël Vanmaekelbergh and Willem L. Vos
Additional contact information
Peter Lodahl: University of Twente
A. Floris van Driel: Utrecht University
Ivan S. Nikolaev: University of Twente
Arie Irman: University of Twente
Karin Overgaag: University of Twente
Daniël Vanmaekelbergh: Utrecht University
Willem L. Vos: University of Twente

Nature, 2004, vol. 430, issue 7000, 654-657

Abstract: Abstract Control of spontaneously emitted light lies at the heart of quantum optics. It is essential for diverse applications ranging from miniature lasers and light-emitting diodes1,2,3,4,5, to single-photon sources for quantum information6,7,8, and to solar energy harvesting9. To explore such new quantum optics applications, a suitably tailored dielectric environment is required in which the vacuum fluctuations that control spontaneous emission can be manipulated10,11. Photonic crystals provide such an environment: they strongly modify the vacuum fluctuations, causing the decay of emitted light to be accelerated or slowed down12,13, to reveal unusual statistics14, or to be completely inhibited in the ideal case of a photonic bandgap1,15. Here we study spontaneous emission from semiconductor quantum dots embedded in inverse opal photonic crystals16. We show that the spectral distribution and time-dependent decay of light emitted from excitons confined in the quantum dots are controlled by the host photonic crystal. Modified emission is observed over large frequency bandwidths of 10%, orders of magnitude larger than reported for resonant optical microcavities17. Both inhibited and enhanced decay rates are observed depending on the optical emission frequency, and they are controlled by the crystals' lattice parameter. Our experimental results provide a basis for all-solid-state dynamic control of optical quantum systems18.

Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02772 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:430:y:2004:i:7000:d:10.1038_nature02772

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature02772

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().