Abstract

The Planck blackbody law is usually derived in the large-cavity limit in which the density of electromagnetic modes is treated in the free-space-continuum limit. However, in a microcavity the normal mode structure is manifestly different from that in free space, and hence the form of the blackbody spectrum can be radically altered. We calculate the modified blackbody spectrum in the simple example of a cavity consisting of two parallel mirrors separated by a short distance. Specifically, we compute the cavity-modified blackbody distribution and Stefan–Boltzmann law.

© 1995 Optical Society of America