Abstract

Recently there has been a great deal of interest in the study of photonic band-gap structures with regard to their electromagnetic properties as well as their effects on fundamental radiative processes such as spontaneous emission. Among the predicted effects is the complete suppression of the first-order interaction between two identical atoms, one of which is electronically excited. Another predicted effect is the enhancement of the attractive molecular interaction energy of an fee crystal with a photonic band gap in the Casimir-Polder regime of the material.

© 1992 Optical Society of America