Surface plasmon induced quantum interference at meta-material interface

TL;DR

This paper explores quantum interference effects at a meta-material interface involving surface plasmons, demonstrating enhanced decay rates and spectral control in a four-level atomic system coupled to a negative index meta-material environment.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of quantum interference mediated by anisotropic surface plasmons in negative index meta-materials, revealing new control mechanisms for emitter decay and spectrum.

Findings

Orders of magnitude enhancement in decay rates

Interference between orthogonal dipoles via shared SP modes

Spectral properties depend on structural and material parameters

Abstract

In this work we investigate quantum interference in a four-level atom coupled to a negative index meta-material (NIMM) anisotropic plasmonic environment that supports both TE and TM polarized surface plasmons (SP). The analysis confirms the creation of the anisotropic environment and two dipoles can interfere with each other even if they are orthogonal by sharing such SP modes. The NIMM/plasmonic environment provides more options to control SP interaction with emitters and their spontaneous emission decays and spectrum. The spectrum depends critically on structure parameters, mode frequency, frequency dependent electric permittivity and magnetic permeability, and the location of the atom etc. We observe orders of magnitudes enhancement in the plasmonic-modified decays and spectrum compared to free space case.