title: Simultaneous inhibition and redistribution of spontaneous light emission in photonic crystals.
abstract: Inhibiting spontaneous light emission and redistributing the energy into useful forms are desirable objectives for advances in various fields, including photonics, illuminations, displays, solar cells, and even quantum-information systems. We demonstrate both the "inhibition" and "redistribution" of spontaneous light emission by using two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals, in which the refractive index is changed two-dimensionally. The overall spontaneous emission rate is found to be reduced by a factor of 5 as a result of the 2D photonic bandgap effect. Simultaneously, the light energy is redistributed from the 2D plane to the direction normal to the photonic crystal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Katsura, Nishikyo-Ku, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan.
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Shigeki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Asano
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Noda