Enhancement of spontaneous emission from the resonant modes of a photonic crystal slab single-defect cavity

Modification of the spontaneous-emission lifetime in photonic crystal single-defect resonant modes is studied with the finite-difference time domain method. We investigate spontaneous-emission enhancement from the monopole and the dipole modes of a hexagonal lattice cavity, considering the effects of the finite emitter linewidth and spectral detuning. Large spontaneous-emission enhancement of >50 is achieved numerically from the high-quality-factor monopole mode when the emitter linewidth is comparable with the resonant-mode linewidth. However, if broad-linewidth material is used and a detuning effect is included, the dipole mode with a low quality factor and a smaller mode volume could be more advantageous for spontaneous-emission enhancement. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.