Abstract:
The propagation and emission of light in a real photonic
crystal is routinely affected by the intrinsic disorder
and its finite-size. Thus, theoretical calculation based on
the notion of a defect free crystal with an infinite thickness is irrational in the real world experiments. Here, we
report an acute modification of light propagation and
emission induced by the finite-size of the crystal. We have
measured the emission intensity and rate from single
domain of the crystal to study the finite size effect on the
spontaneous emission suppression. The results show spatial
fluctuation of spontaneous emission suppression across
domains that have a linear scaling with crystal size. The results have implications in contriving devices pertaining to
controlled spontaneous emission such as in cavity quantum
electrodynamics.
