Effect of atomic position on the spontaneous emission of a three-level atom in a coherent photonic-band-gap reservoir

Abstract

The effect of atomic position on the spontaneous emission and optical spectra of a three-level atom embedded in a photonic crystal was studied by considering the coherent two-band photonic-band-gap (PBG) reservoir. With the definite phase difference between the fields of the air band and dielectric band in this coherent PBG reservoir, we found that this coherent property grows stronger and results in the spectrum shift and the appearance of dark lines and kinks as the width of band gap gets smaller; and the variation of the atomic position leads to large shift of spectral peak. The averaged spectra of the system with an ensemble of atoms embedded in the dielectric region are blueshifted while those of atoms in the air region are redshifted. The spectra peaks can even shift more than 75% of the half width at half maximum. The feasible experimental systems composed of an ensemble of molecules (quantum dots or fluorescence dye) in photonic crystals are discussed.