Abstract
Inhibited spontaneous emission from excitons in semiconductors is an attractive phenomenon from the optical device point of view. We show that the spontaneous-emission rate for a quantum wire can be reduced by embedding a quantum wire of high refractive index in a bulk material of low refractive index. Furthermore, the reduction of the emission rate is strongly dependent on the polarization of emission. We show that the emission rate for the two polarizations perpendicular to the wire is proportional to the fifth power of the refractive-index ratio. However, the emission rate for the polarization parallel to the wire is only proportional to the first power of the refractive index ratio. For example, if we embed a quantum wire of n = 3.5 material in n = 1.5 bulk material, the emission rate for the two polarizations perpendicular to the wire is reduced by more than 50× over that an n = 3.5 bulk material. This makes the emission predominantly in the polarization parallel to the wire. Such a single-polarization emission would be useful in achieving low-threshold microcavity lasers.
© 1991 Optical Society of America
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