Quantitative analysis of directional spontaneous emission spectra from light sources in photonic crystals

Abstract

We have performed angle-resolved measurements of spontaneous-emission spectra from laser dyes and quantum dots in opal and inverse opal photonic crystals. Pronounced directional dependencies of the emission spectra are observed: angular ranges of strongly reduced emission adjoin with angular ranges of enhanced emission. It appears that emission from embedded light sources is affected both by the periodicity and by the structural imperfections of the crystals: the photons are Bragg diffracted by lattice planes and scattered by unavoidable structural disorder. Using a model comprising diffuse light transport and photonic band structure, we quantitatively explain the directional emission spectra. This provides detailed understanding of the transport of spontaneously emitted light in real photonic crystals, which is essential in the interpretation of quantum-optics in photonic band-gap crystals and for applications wherein directional emission and total emission power are controlled.

10 pages, 10 figures, corrected pdf, inserted new reference

References in corpus (2)

• Accurate calculation of the local density of optical states in inverse-opal photonic crystals
• Emission Spectrum of a Dipole in a Semi-infinite Periodic Dielectric Structure: Effect of the Boundary

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Strongly nonexponential time-resolved fluorescence of quantum-dot ensembles in three-dimensional photonic crystals
• Accurate calculation of the local density of optical states in inverse-opal photonic crystals
• Photoluminescence modification by high-order photonic band with abnormal dispersion in ZnO inverse opal
• Decay dynamics of quantum dots influenced by the local density of optical states of two-dimensional photonic crystal membranes
• Angular redistribution of near-infrared emission from quantum dots in 3D photonic crystals