Non-Markovian Atomic Switching in Photonic Band Gap Materials

Marian Florescu and Sajeev John, University of Toronto, Canada

We present the first non-Markovian corrections to resonance fluorescence in photonic band gap materials, using a perturbative expansion of the Heisenberg equations of motion [1], [2]. Non-Markovian effects arise from the rapid variation of the photonic reservoir density of states with frequency [3], [4]. Our method recaptures the physics of the photon-atom bound state [4] in the presence of a full photonic band gap (PBG). For the anisotropic three dimensional photonic band gap, it predicts fundamentally new features in the resonance fluorescence, such as atomic population inversion and switching behavior in a two-level atom for moderate values of the applied laser field. The magnitude of the switching effect depends sensitively on the the external laser intensity and its detuning frequency from the atomic transition. The generalization of our approach to the case of collective atomic switching [5] is analyzed. More realistic models for the photonic reservoir [6], and possible experimental applications are also discussed.

References:

[1] M. Florescu and S. John, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. A.
[2] K.Wodkiewicz and J.H. Eberly, Annals of Physics 101, 574 (1976).
[3] S. John and J. Wang, Phys. Rev. B 43, 12772, (1991).
[4] S. John and T. Quang, Phys. Rev. A 54, 4479, (1996).
[5] S. John and T. Quang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78,1888, (1997).
[6] K. Busch and S. John, Phys. Rev. E 58, 3896, (1998).