Controlling the spontaneous emission of artificial atoms in photonic crystal microcavities

by Massimo Gurioli (LENS and Department of Physics, University of Florence)

Tuesday 7 Feb 2012, 16:00 → 18:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio G. Marconi)

Photonic crystals are periodic dielectric structures in which light flow can be molded and eventually the propagation is forbidden at certain frequencies and along given directions. By tailoring the design of the periodic structure, one can control the light propagation and can engineer the local density of states of the electromagnetic field. Among the several fascinating applications of photonic crystals, the possibility to introduce localized dielectric defects leads to the formation of states into the forbidden energy gap corresponding to spatially localized optical modes. These structures are often denominated photonic crystal microcavities and with appropriate design allow to realize optical modes with large quality factor which have been already successfully exploited for the realization of low-threshold lasers, single photon sources, add-drop filters, and for the implementation of cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments. In this talk I will give an introduction to cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments, discussing the photonic eigenvalue problem, the band gap formation and the tailoring of dielectric defects for enhancing the electromagnetic local density of states. As a prototype of investigation in solid-state quantum electrodynamics, I will consider the coupling between the electromagnetic field in a photonic microcavity and a semiconductor artificial atom, or quantum dot. The different regimes of weak and strong coupling will be considered and the relevant phenomena will be presented.