Abstract

Fast and bright spontaneous emission is directly observed from Er atoms placed at the antinode of gold nano-trench cavity. The average decay rate of ~100,000 Er atoms is measured to be more than 100 times faster than that in homogeneous bulk silica. Over 40% of those photons coupled to the cavity mode is measured to be re-emiited into the free space, which the high extraction efficiency of the nano-cavity made of metal. The unavoidable ohmic losses of the metal are found to be reduced to an acceptable level by employing the low-Q metallic resonator.

© 2014 Optical Society of America