Inhibited spontaneous emission using gaplike resonance in disordered photonic structures

Abstract

We study the mesoscopic light transport and emission dynamics in a photonic structure made up of monodisperse scatterers as it undergoes an order-disorder structural transition. We have found a prominent tunable gaplike resonance in samples with 100% induced disorder due to the formation of clusters which consist of scatterers with short-range order. The wavelength-dependent decay rate for an emitter embedded inside the photonic structure at different levels of induced disorder is investigated. Surprisingly, the sample with 100% induced disorder exhibits comparable emission rates with 0% induced-disorder sample which indicates a similar local density of photon states (LDOS) variations in both limits of the disorder. The results are interpreted as the effect of LDOS suppression on the emission of light caused by the gaplike resonance which is in accordance with the theory.