Abstract

A structural defect in a two-dimensionally periodic dielectric structure may form a local field mode within a photonic band gap in which no other E-polarized field modes exist. We show that such a defect mode can give rise to new quantum-electrodynamic effects in resonant field–atom interaction, owing to the spatially modulated standing-wave character of its field. Atomic-beam motion is considered (a) along an interplanar defect and (b) through a spherical defect. The resonant interaction of a moving two-level atom with the quantized field of these defects can yield hitherto unknown features—oscillatory patterns of the atomic population inversion, fluorescence spectra, and nonclassical field states—that are essentially different from their counterparts in the standard Jaynes–Cummings model, which holds for atomic-beam motion in a spatially uniform single-mode field.

© 1993 Optical Society of America