Light emission from sources located within metallodielectric planar microcavities

A simple, rigorous electromagnetic formula is derived for predicting the el ectromagnetic power provided by sources located in transparent or dissipati ve planar microcavities. With this simple approach, we compare numerically and experimentally the electromagnetic power that escapes the microcavity w hen the source is located in a metallodielectric or in an all-dielectric re sonant planar structure. Although a strong light-extraction coefficient mig ht he expected for metallodielectric microcavities, we show that these attr active structures suffer hom metal absorption even when thin metallic layer s are used. Experiments implemented with europium chelates located in metal lodielectric or in all-dielectric microcavities confirm this result. (C) 19 99 Optical Society of America.