Relaxation via spontaneous emission of bosons: Non-Markovian approach

Coupled dipole method for radiation dynamics in finite photonic crystal structures

We present a coupled-dipole treatment of radiation dynamics in the weak-coupling regime in a finite three-dimensional photonic crystal structure. The structure is discretized in real space and the self-consistent local field is computed. We illustrate the computation of radiation dynamics by calculating the spontaneous emission rate for a source located in a defect cavity inside a slab photonic crystal structure. We compute the cavity spectral response, the near-field modal structure, and the far-field radiation pattern of the microcavity. We also discuss our results in light of the recent experimental near-field observations of the optical modes of a photonic crystal microcavity.

Decay kinetic properties of atoms in photonic crystals with absolute gaps

Decay kinetic properties of a two-level atom near the band edges of photonic crystals (PCs) with absolute gaps are studied based on the Green's function expression for the evolution operator. The local coupling strength between the photons and an atom is evaluated by an exact numerical method. It is found that the decay behavior of an excited atom can be fundamentally changed by the variation of the atomic position: Weisskopf-Wigner and non-Weisskopf-Wigner decay phenomena occur at different atomic positions in the PCs as a result of a significant difference in the local coupling strength. Our finding implies that it is possible to engineer the luminescence spectrum by controlling the atomic position.

Relaxation and the Zeno effect in qubit measurements

We consider a qubit interacting with its environment and continuously monitored by a detector represented by a point contact. Bloch-type equations describing the entire system of the qubit, the environment, and the detector are derived. Using these equations we evaluate the detector current and its noise spectrum in terms of the decoherence and relaxation rates of the qubit. Simple expressions are obtained that show how these quantities can be accurately measured. We demonstrate that due to interaction with the environment, the measurement can never localize a qubit even for infinite decoherence rate.