Spontaneous Emission Rate Alteration in Optical Waveguide Structures

Optical microcavities hold technological promise for constructing efficient, high-speed, semiconductor lasers. The desired effects depend on the degree to which spontaneous emission may be altered by the presence of the cavity. We discuss the radiating modes of an oscillating electric dipole placed between two planar metallic mirrors (one-dimensional confinement) and placed in a optical wire structure (two-dimensional confinement). The analysis is carried out using a mode counting method. We show that this method is simpler and more intuitive than traditional classical and quantum electrodynamical calculations. Using the results of the analysis, we find that an optical wire provides much larger spontaneous emission rate alteration than a planar mirror structure.