Spontaneous emission and nonlinear effects in photonic bandgap materials

Abstract

. We summarize and review our theoretical and experimental work on spontaneous emission and nonlinear effects in one-dimensional, photonic bandgap (PBG) structures. We present a new result: a method for calculating the normal-mode solutions---and hence the spontaneous emission of embedded emitters---in an arbitrary, linear, lossless, one-dimensional, PBG structure. 1. Introduction We present results of theoretical and experimental investigations into spontaneous emission alteration and nonlinear optical effects in periodic thin-film multilayer devices---onedimensional photonic bandgap (PBG) materials [1]. We begin with a brief section on one-dimensional photonic bandgaps and photonic band edges [1, 2]. We then introduce the concept of nonlinear optical effects in PBG structures by modelling the operation of an all-optical # 3 PBG switch [3]. Next, we model theoretically a # 3 thin-film device that exhibits passive anisotropic optical transmission---the optical analogue of the electro...