Spontaneous Emission of a Polarized Atom in a Medium Between Two Parallel Mirrors

Using the photon closed orbit theory, the spontaneousemission rate of a polarized atom in a medium between two parallel mirrorsis derived and calculated. It is found that the spontaneous emission rate ofa polarized atom between the mirrors is related to the atomic position andthe polarization direction. The results show that in the vicinity of themirror, the variation of the spontaneous emission rate depends crucially onthe atomic polarization direction. With the increase of the polarizationangle, the oscillation in the spontaneous emission rate becomes decreased.For the polarization direction parallel to the mirror plane, the oscillationis the greatest; while for the perpendicular polarization direction, theoscillation is nearly vanished. The agreement between our result and thequantum electrodynamics result suggests the correctness of our calculation.This study further verifies that the atomic spontaneous emission process canbe effectively controlled by changing the polarization orientation of theatom.