Spontaneous emission from a Λ three-level atom in an anisotropic photonic crystal

The spontaneous emission properties of a Lambda type atom embedded in a three-dimensional anisotropic photonic crystal are investigated. Only one of the two atomic transition frequencies is considered near the photonic band edge. The atomic decay properties such as the time-evolution of the excited-state population and the instant and effective decay rates are studied in detail. It is found that there exists a wide region for the difference of the transition frequency from the band edge, in which only diffusion fields with frequencies being near or far away from the band edge appear in the emitted field. The spontaneous emitted field and its spectrum depend not only on the detuning of the transition frequency from the band edge, but also on the distance from the atom. Therefore, during the propagating process, the propagating field is partially transferred into the diffusion field. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.