Abstract

The interaction between light and matter is widely considered to be mediated solely by the electric field. This assertion applies in the Bohr model as well, which holds that magnetic dipole transitions are about 10⁵ times weaker than electric dipole transitions [1], therefore being considered marginal. In this context, many researches have aimed at controlling the spontaneous emission of electric dipole transitions through techniques such as microcavities [2], photonic crystals [3] or optical antennas [4, 5]. All these techniques rely on the modification of the electric local density of optical state in the vicinity of the considered electric dipole, characterized through the Purcell effect. Nowadays, this effect is mainly used to quantify the total decay rate enhancement of such electric dipole transition, but originally it was actually employed to describe nuclear magnetic resonance decays [6].

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