Probing the Electromagnetic Local Density of States with a Strongly Mixed Electric and Magnetic Dipole Emitter

Abstract

We identify a solid-state quantum emitter whose room-temperature radiative decay is mediated by a nearly equal mixture of isotropic electric dipole (ED) and magnetic dipole (MD) transitions. Using energy-momentum spectroscopy, we experimentally show that the near-infrared ${}^3$T${}_2{\to }^3$A${}_2$ emission from divalent-nickel-doped magnesium oxide (Ni${}^{2+}$:MgO) is composed of $\sim$50% MD and $\sim$50% ED transitions. We then demonstrate that the spontaneous emission rate of these ions near planar interfaces is determined by the combined electric and magnetic local density of optical states (LDOS). This electromagnetic LDOS probes the total mode density, and thus similar to thermal emission, these unique electronic emitters effectively excite all polarizations and orientations of the electromagnetic field.

5 page manuscript including 4 figures; 4 page ancillary supplement including 3 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Directional visible light scattering by silicon nanoparticles
• Magnetic Dipole and Electric Quadrupole Transitions in the Trivalent Lanthanide Series: Calculated Emission Rates and Oscillator Strengths
• Mapping and Quantifying Electric and Magnetic Dipole Luminescence at the nanoscale
• Quantifying and controlling the magnetic dipole contribution to 1.5 $\mu$m light emission in erbium-doped yttrium oxide
• Non-negligible magnetic dipole scattering from metallic nanowire for ultrasensitive deflection sensing
• Probing the electrodynamic local density of states with magnetoelectric point scatterers

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Classical antennae, quantum emitters, and densities of optical states
• The local density of optical states of a metasurface
• Enhancement of and interference among higher order multipole transitions in molecules near a plasmonic nanoantenna
• Measuring the magnetic dipole transition of single nanorods by spectroscopy and Fourier microscopy
• Interaction of atomic systems with quantum vacuum beyond electric dipole approximation
• The magnetic Purcell effect: the case of an emitter near an antiferromagnet
• Refining spectroscopic calculations for trivalent lanthanide ions: a revised parametric Hamiltonian and open-source solution
• Vectorial probing of electric and magnetic transitions in variable optical environments and vice-versa