Abstract

The control of the radiative emission of a whole variety of nanostructures through the use of interfaces or cavities have focused particular interests for a wide range of application such as biology or quantum information. In this field, optical cavities are often used to decrease the radiative lifetime of an emitter through the effect first described by Purcell. While dielectric interfaces and dielectric microcavities have already shown their ability to significantly increase spontaneous emission from a dipole, the interaction between an emitter and a metallic nanostructure placed in its vicinity has less been studied. For this kind of devices, the electromagnetic energy can be confined in subwavelength-sized regions through the local excitation of surface plasmon resonances.

© 2009 IEEE