Simultaneous inhibition and redistribution of spontaneous light emission in photonic crystals

Inhibiting spontaneous light emission and redistributing the energy into useful forms are desirable objectives for advances in various fields, including photonics, illuminations, displays, solar cells, and even quantum-information systems. We demonstrate both the “inhibition” and “redistribution” of spontaneous light emission by using two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals, in which the refractive index is changed two-dimensionally. The overall spontaneous emission rate is found to be reduced by a factor of 5 as a result of the 2D photonic bandgap effect. Simultaneously, the light energy is redistributed from the 2D plane to the direction normal to the photonic crystal.