Controlled atomic spontaneous emission fromEr3+in a transparent Si/SiO2microcavity

Abstract

The spontaneous emission lifetime and intensity of Er implanted into ${\mathrm{SiO}}_2$ is modified by a Si/${\mathrm{SiO}}_2$ planar microcavity. The cavity strongly affects the coupling of the optically excited ${\mathrm{Er}}^{3+}$ to the radiative and waveguiding modes of the system, resulting in a spontaneous lifetime of 14.8 ms for a cavity off-resonance with the ${\mathrm{Er}}^{3+}$ versus a lifetime of 9.1 ms for an on-resonance cavity. The observed spontaneous emission lifetime changes agree well with calculated values based on a computation method which is also presented.