Spontaneous emission in the presence of a dielectric cylinder - art. no. 013820

Spontaneous emission of photons by an atom placed near a dielectric cylindr ical waveguide at an arbitrary position is analyzed using global free elect romagnetic modes, satisfying necessary continuity conditions at the slab bo undaries. These modes include the modes extended over the whole space (trav elling) and the modes trapped to a waveguide (waveguided). To describe angu lar properties of the spontaneous emission, a parametrization of the travel ling modes by the outgoing waves has been proposed. Angular characteristics of the travelling photon emission, distributions of the trapped photon emi ssion, as well as the global decay rates have been calculated using the qua ntum approach and the standard perturbation theory. Difficulties due to the presence of sharp resonances (whispering gallery modes) among the travelli ng photons are pointed out.