We have theoretically studied the effect of deterministic temporal control of spontaneous emission in a dynamic optical microcavity. We propose a new paradigm in light emission: we envision an ensemble of two-level emitters in an environment where the local density of optical states is modified on a (ultrafast) time scale shorter than the decay time. A rate equation model is developed for the excited state population of two-level emitters in a time-dependent environment in the weak coupling regime in quantum electrodynamics. As a realistic experimental system, we consider emitters in a semiconductor microcavity that is switched by free-carrier excitation. We demonstrate that a short temporal increase of the radiative decay rate depletes the excited state and drastically increases the emission intensity during the switch time. The resulting time-dependent spontaneous emission shows a distribution of photon arrival times that strongly deviates from the usual exponential decay: A deterministic burst of photons is spontaneously emitted during the switch event.
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Added animation (Thyrrestrup_Vos_TCSPC_histogram.mp4) illustrates the histogram of random arrival times of up to n=400 spontaneously emitted photons that are compared to an exponential distribution (green curve.)

https://opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-21-20-23130&id=267607

H. Thyrrestrup, A. Hartsuiker, J.-M. Gérard, and W. L. Vos

2013

09/2013

Opt. Express

21

23130-23144

10.1364/OE.21.023130

all-optical switching, Dynamic spontaneous emission, microcavity, spontaneous emission, two-level system