On the use of Purcell factors for plasmon antennas

The Purcell factor is the standard figure of merit for spontaneous emission enhancement in microcavities and has also been proposed to describe emission enhancements for plasmonic resonances. A comparison of quality factor, mode volume, and Purcell factor for single and coupled plasmon spheres to exact calculations of emission rates shows that a Purcell factor derived from quality factor and mode volume does not describe emission changes due to plasmon antennas.     

Application of LDOS and multipole expansion technique in optimization of photonic crystal designs

We introduced a procedure of using local density of states for increasing the quality factor and Purcell factor of photonic crystal cavities. We used multipole expansion method for accurate calculation of local density of photonic states, stationary field profile, Q-factor, mode volume and Purcell factor of photonic crystal cavities. We found out that the quality factor exponentially increases with the number of additional photonic crystal layers around the cavity while the mode frequencies stay unchanged. We also demonstrated the method in studying the defect mode??s behavior in photonic crystal cavities and showed that high Q-factor, small mode volume and high Purcell factor could be obtained with optimization of geometrical parameters of first neighboring layer.     

Purcell factor in small metallic cavities

We have studied theoretically the Purcell factor which characterizes a change in the emission rate of an electric or magnetic dipole embedded in the center of a spherical cavity. The main attention is paid to the analysis of cavities with radii small compared to the wavelength. It is shown that the Purcell factor in small metallic cavities varies in a wide range depending on the ratio of the cavity size to the skin depth.     

Long-tail statistics of the Purcell factor in disordered media driven by near-field interactions

In this Letter, we study the Purcell effect in a 3D disordered dielectric medium through fluorescence decay rates of nanosized light sources. We report distributions of Purcell factor with non-Gaussian long-tailed statistics and an enhancement of up to 8 times the average value. We attribute this large enhancement to strong fluctuations of the local density of states induced by near-field scattering sustained by more than one particle. Our findings go beyond standard diagrammatic and single-scattering models and can be explained only by taking into account the full near-field interaction.     

局域态密度对表面等离激元特性影响的研究

表面等离激元是一种在金属与介质界面上激发并耦合电荷密度起伏的电磁振荡, 具有近场增强和短波长等特性, 在纳米光子学的研究中扮演重要角色. 将表面等离激元的效应用于单光子源的制备, 不但可以有效减小器件的体积, 而且可以有效提高单光子的辐射和收集效率. 本文根据表面等离激元的珀赛尔系数与光子态密度的关系, 采用局域态密度计算的方法, 分析了不同金属材料的局域态密度及珀赛尔系数的特性. 通过计算比较, 选择银为最佳金属材料, 并在此基础上讨论了探测距离和电介质材料对局域态密度和珀赛尔系数的影响, 为基于表面等离子激元的单光子源制备提供重要参数.     

Smith–Purcell free electron laser based on a semi-conical resonator

We investigate a Smith–Purcell free electron laser composed of an electron gun, a semi-conical resonator, a metallic grating and collector. The semi-conical resonator could reflect all Smith–Purcell radiation with emission angle θ, and with random azimuthal angles, back onto the electron beam and causes the electrons to be modulated. Tunable coherent far-infrared Smith–Purcell radiation with a high output peak power at millimeter wavelengths can be generated.     

Self‐consistent Purcell factor and spontaneous topological transition in hyperbolic metamaterials

In this work, we develop a self‐consistent approach for calculation of the Purcell factor and Lamb shift in highly dispersive hyperbolic metamaterial accounting for the effective dipole frequency shift. Also we theoretically predict the possi‐ bility of spontaneous topological transition, which occurs not due to the external change of the system parameters but only due to the Lamb shift.     

Theoretical study about the gain in indirect bandgap semiconductor optical cavities

Indirect bandgap semiconductors such as silicon are not efficient light emitters because a phonon with a high momentum is required to transfer an electron from the conduction to the valence band. In a recent study (M.J. Chen et al., 2006) [6] an analytical expression of the optical gain in bulk indirect bandgap semiconductors was obtained. The main conclusion was that the free-carrier absorption was much higher than the optical gain at ambient temperature, which prevents lasing. In this work, we consider the case in which the semiconductor material is engineered to form an optical cavity characterized by a certain Purcell factor. We conclude that although the optical gain is increased, losses due to free carriers increase in the same way so lasing is also prevented even when creating a high-Q optical cavity.     

High-efficiency single-photon sources based on InAs/GaAs quantum dots in pillar microcavities

We have experimentally investigated pillar microcavities containing a low density of InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots. We observe a four-fold reduction in the radiative lifetime of an excitonic state due to the Purcell effect and show that we are able to collect 10% of the photons emitted by this state into a microscope objective. Under quasi-resonant excitation the multi-photon emission probability is more than 50 times lower than a Poissonian source of the same intensity.     

Cavity-Enhanced Third Harmonic Generation

We derive the analytical expression of microcavity-enhanced factor for third harmonic generation in terms of detunings, linewidths, and the Purcell factors of the relevant microcavity modes. It is suitable for microcavities with any dimensions and arbitrary geometric shapes.     

Analysis of the Purcell effect in the waveguide mode by <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis>-quantization

A method for calculating the spontaneous-emission probability for arbitrary layered structures in the waveguide mode has been developed based on the scattering matrix formalism. The results of calculating the mode Purcell factor for the TE and TM modes of a planar waveguide are shown. Analytical estimates for the mode Purcell factor are obtained, and the conditions for achieving maximum amplification of spontaneous emission in a waveguide are determined.     

Enhancement of room temperature sub-bandgap light emission from silicon photonic crystal nanocavity by Purcell effect

We report the enhancement of sub-bandgap photoluminescence from silicon via the Purcell effect. We couple the defect emission from silicon, which is believed to be due to hydrogen incorporation into the lattice, to a photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity. We observe an up to 300-fold enhancement of the emission at room temperature at 1550 nm, as compared to an unpatterned sample, which is then comparable to the silicon band-edge emission. We discuss the possibility of enhancing this emission even further by introducing additional defects by ion implantation, or by treating the silicon PhC nanocavity with hydrogen plasma.     

Dipole radiation near hyperbolic metamaterials: applicability of effective-medium approximation

We investigate the radiation rate of a dipole in close proximity to a hyperbolic metamaterial and confirm that both the radiation rate and its fraction directed into the metamaterial are greatly increased compared to bulk dielectric or metal. However, we find that the homogenized effective-medium approach greatly overestimates the Purcell factor compared to metal-dielectric subwavelength multilayers with previously reported layer thicknesses.     

Dipole induced transparency in drop-filter cavity-waveguide systems

We show that a waveguide that is normally opaque due to interaction with a drop-filter cavity can be made transparent when the drop filter is also coupled to a dipole, even when the vacuum Rabi frequency of the dipole is much less than the cavity decay rate. The condition for transparency is simply achieving large Purcell factors. We describe how this effect can be useful for designing quantum repeaters for long distance quantum communication.     

Ultrasmall subwavelength nanorod plasmonic cavity

We propose an ultrasmall plasmonic cavity consisting of a high-index/low-index dielectric nanorod covered with silver. Full three-dimensional subwavelength confinement of the surface-plasmon polaritons was achieved at the high-index dielectric-silver interface without propagating to the low-index dielectric-silver interface. The numerical simulations showed that the plasmonic mode excited in this cavity has a deep subwavelength mode volume of 0.0038(λ/2n)(3) and a quality factor of 1500 at 40 K, and consequently a large Purcell factor of ～2×10(5). Therefore, this plasmonic cavity is expected to be useful for the demonstration of high-efficiency single photon sources or low-threshold lasers in an ultracompact nanophotonic circuit.     

Enhanced spontaneous emission from InAs/GaAs quantum dots in pillar microcavities emitting at telecom wavelengths

Optical properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dots in micropillar cavities emitting at 1.3 microm are studied by time-resolved microphotoluminescence. The Purcell effect is observed with an enhancement of the decay rate by a factor of two for quantum dots in resonance with the cavity mode.     

Plasmonic finite-thickness metal–semiconductor–metal waveguide as ultra-compact modulator

We propose a plasmonic waveguide with semiconductor gain material for optoelectronic integrated circuits. We analyze properties of a finite-thickness metal–semiconductor–metal (F-MSM) waveguide to be utilized as an ultra-compact and fast plasmonic modulator. The InP-based semiconductor core allows electrical control of signal propagation. By pumping the core we can vary the gain level and thus the transmittance of the whole system. The study of the device was made using both analytical approaches for planar two-dimensional case as well as numerical simulations for finite-width waveguides. We analyze the eigenmodes of the F-MSM waveguide, propagation constant, confinement factor, Purcell factor, absorption coefficient, and extinction ratio of the structure. We show that using thin metal layers instead of thick ones we can obtain higher extinction ratio of the device.     

Tailoring optical nonlinearities via the Purcell effect

We predict that the effective nonlinear optical susceptibility can be tailored using the Purcell effect. While this is a general physical principle that applies to a wide variety of nonlinearities, we specifically investigate the Kerr nonlinearity. We show theoretically that using the Purcell effect for frequencies close to an atomic resonance can substantially influence the resultant Kerr nonlinearity for light of all (even highly detuned) frequencies. For example, in realistic physical systems, enhancement of the Kerr coefficient by one to two orders of magnitude could be achieved.     

Photon antibunching from a single quantum-dot-microcavity system in the strong coupling regime

We observe antibunching in the photons emitted from a strongly coupled single quantum dot and pillar microcavity in resonance. When the quantum dot was spectrally detuned from the cavity mode, the cavity emission remained antibunched, and also anticorrelated from the quantum dot emission. Resonant pumping of the selected quantum dot via an excited state enabled these observations by eliminating the background emitters that are usually coupled to the cavity. This device demonstrates an on-demand single-photon source operating in the strong coupling regime, with a Purcell factor of 61+/-7 and quantum efficiency of 97%.     

Optical gain by simultaneous photon and phonon confinement in indirect bandgap semiconductor acousto-optical cavities

Optical gain that could ultimately lead to light emission from silicon is a goal that has been pursued for a long time by the scientific community. The reason is that a silicon laser would allow for the development of low-cost, high-volume monolithic photonic integrated circuits created using conventional CMOS technologies. However, the silicon indirect bandgap—requiring the participation of a proper phonon in the process of light emission—is a roadblock that has not been overcome so far. A high-Q optical cavity allowing a very high density of states at the desired frequencies has been proposed as a possible way to get optical gain. However, recent theoretical studies have shown that the free-carrier absorption is much higher than the optical gain at ambient temperature in an indirect bandgap semiconductor, even if a high-Q optical cavity is formed. In this work, we consider a particular case in which the semiconductor material is engineered to form an acousto-optical cavity where the photon and phonon modes involved in the emission process are simultaneously confined. The acousto-optical cavity confinement effect on the light emission properties is characterized by a compound Purcell factor which includes both the optical as well as the acoustic Purcell factor (APF). A theoretical expression for the APF is also introduced. Our theoretical results suggest that creating an acousto-optical cavity the optical gain can overcome the photon loss due to free carriers as a consequence of the localization of phonons even at room temperature, paving the way towards the pursued silicon laser.