Controlling electric and magnetic Purcell effects in phosphorene via strain engineering

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how uniaxial strain can significantly modulate electric and magnetic Purcell effects in phosphorene, enabling precise control over spontaneous emission rates for advanced optoelectronic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model for strained phosphorene that allows active tuning of light-matter interactions, surpassing traditional low-energy approximations.

Findings

Strain can suppress or enhance Purcell effects by over 1300%.

Both electric and magnetic decay rates are highly tunable via strain.

Strain influences decay pathways, enabling control over emission processes.

Abstract

We investigate the spontaneous emission lifetime of a quantum emitter near a substrate coated with phosphorene under the influence of uniaxial strain. We consider both electric dipole and magnetic dipole-mediated spontaneous transitions from the excited to the ground state. The modeling of phosphorene is performed by employing a tight-binding model that goes beyond the usual low-energy description. We demonstrate that both electric and magnetic decay rates can be strongly tuned by the application of uniform strain, ranging from a near-total suppression of the Purcell effect to a remarkable enhancement of more than 1300% due to the high flexibility associated with the puckered lattice structure of phosphorene. We also unveil the use of strain as a mechanism to tailor the most probable decay pathways of the emitted quanta. Our results show that uniaxially strained phosphorene is an efficient and versatile material platform for the active control of light-matter interactions thanks to its extraordinary optomechanical properties.