Spontaneous Emission of a Polarized Atom in a Medium Between Two Parallel Mirrors

• Published in: Communications in theoretical physics Vol. 53; no. 1; pp. 138 - 144
• Main Author: 王德华 黄凯云 徐强
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.01.2010
• Subjects: 偏振方向; 原子自发辐射; 方向控制; 极化方向; 辐射率; 量子电动力学; 闭合轨道理论
• ISSN: 0253-6102
• DOI: 10.1088/0253-6102/53/1/29

Using the photon closed orbit theory, the spontaneous emission rate of a polarized atom in a medium between two parallel mirrors is derived and calculated. It is found that the spontaneous emission rate of a polarized atom between the mirrors is related to the atomic position and the polarization direction. The results show that in the vicinity of the mirror, the variation of the spontaneous emission rate depends crucially on the atomic polarization direction. With the increase of the polarization angle, the oscillation in the spontaneous emission rate becomes decreased. For the polarization direction parallel to the mirror plane, the oscillation is the greatest; while for the perpendicular polarization direction, the oscillation is nearly vanished. The agreement between our result and the quantum electrodynamics result suggests the correctness of our calculation. This study further verifies that the atomic spontaneous emission process can be effectively controlled by changing the polarization orientation of the atom.