Abstract

The spontaneous emission rate of two interacting excited atoms near a dielectric interface is studied using the photon closed-orbit theory and the dipole image method. The total emission rate of one atom during the emission process is calculated as a function of the distance between the atom and the interface. The results suggest that the spontaneous emission rate depends not only on the atomic-interface distances, but also on the orientation of the two atomic dipoles and the initial distance between the two atoms. The oscillation in the spontaneous emission rate is caused by the interference between the outgoing electromagnetic wave emitted from one atom and other waves arriving at this atom after traveling along various classical orbits. Each peak in the Fourier transformed spontaneous emission rate corresponds with one action of photon classical orbit.

© 2009 Chinese Optics Letters

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