Excitons in photonic crystals

Induced surface polarizations are shown to cause significant modifications of the Coulomb interaction potential in photonic crystals. Because the optical properties are dominated by pair states, the locally varying electron-hole correlations induce a space dependence of the optical material response that strongly alters the emission and absorption characteristics. The possibility of designing the pair properties opens novel ways to manipulate the light-matter interaction in dielectric structures. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.