Energy transfer between localized emitters in photonic cavities from first principles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a first principles method to accurately predict and control energy transfer between localized emitters in photonic cavities, surpassing traditional approximations and enabling advancements in quantum and optical memory technologies.

Contribution

The work develops a comprehensive first principles framework for energy transfer in photonic cavities, including many-body effects and beyond dipole-dipole interactions, applicable to various nanophotonic devices.

Findings

Cavity can enhance or suppress energy transfer rates by a factor of 10 to 100.

Predicted energy transfer enhancement at ~10nm distance with moderate Q factor (~400).

Off-tuning cavity resonance can significantly reduce transfer rates.

Abstract

Radiative and nonradiative resonant couplings between defects are ubiquitous phenomena in photonic devices used in classical and quantum information technology applications. In this work we present a first principles approach to enable quantitative predictions of the energy transfer between defects in photonic cavities, beyond the dipole-dipole approximation and including the many-body nature of the electronic states. As an example, we discuss the energy transfer from a dipole like emitter to an F center in MgO in a spherical cavity. We show that the cavity can be used to controllably enhance or suppress specific spin flip and spin conserving transitions. Specifically, we predict that a ~10 to 100 enhancement in the resonant energy transfer rate can be gained in the case of the F center in MgO at ~10nm distances from a dipolar source, using rather moderate cavity with quality factor Q~400. We also show that a similar suppression in the transfer rate can be achieved by off-tuning the cavity resonance relative to the emitter transition energy. The framework presented here is general and readily applicable to a wide range of devices where localized emitters are embedded in micro-spheres, core-shell nanoparticles, and dielectric Mie resonators. Hence, our approach paves the way to predict how to control energy transfer in quantum memories and in ultra-high density optical memories, and in a variety of quantum information platforms.