Abstract

For more than a decade now, many works have been devoted to the modification of the spontaneous emission of luminescent species located into what is commonly called a ‘Microcavity’. Two major effects can be distinguished:

- The first one is the spontaneous emission rate enhancement τ/τ₀ (τ₀: free space lifetime) related to the mode volume V and to the cavity quality factor Q=λ/Δλ (Δλ: cavity linewidth) through the Purcell factor τ/τ₀=3/4π²(Qλ³/V).

- The second effect is the spatial distribution alteration of the emitted light that is of great interest to extract 100% of the electromagnetic power provided by the source.

Although planar microcavities can lead to very directive emission they don’t affect significantly the source lifetime because of the planar mode extension in the cavity plane (large V).

© 2000 IEEE