Spontaneous emission into planar multi-dielectric microcavities: Theoretical and experimental analysis of rare earth ion radiations

Spontaneous emission control for rare earth ions implanted inside planar mu ltidielectric microcavities is investigated theoretically and experimentall y. Rigorous classical electrodynamics analyses are presented and compared i n order to compute the electromagnetic power provided by sources located in side planar dielectric multilayer structures. Radiation patterns and lifeti me measurements are performed in Ta2O5/SiO2 microcavities implanted with er bium and praseodymium ions. Although we demonstrate a significant enhanceme nt of the spontaneous emission in a direction normal to the layer (up to 30 %), we show that a large amount of the emitted power is carried by the guid ed modes of the structures. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.