Spontaneous emission enhancement anisotropy near an ultrathin periodically aligned carbon nanotube film

We use a medium-assisted Quantum Electrodynamics approach to study spontaneous emission (SE) and photoluminescence (PL) of a quantum two-level dipole emitter (DE) near an ultrathin closely packed periodically aligned single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCN) film. Periodically aligned SWCN film systems present an example of advanced flexible metasurfaces of controlled thickness [1] that are now available experimentally [2]. SE and PL intensity profiles are computed as functions of DE excitation frequency and parameters of the film such as SWCN composition and thickness, to show that the SWCN in-plane periodic alignment provides an additional measure for the dipolar SE and PL control of the DE located nearby. The SE and PL rates are shown to be highly anisotropic relative to the SWCN alignment direction, breaking the commonly believed viewpoint of their uncontrollably random directionality. The model system studied mimics a single-atom detector or a single-photon source device. Knowledge of the features predicted is advantageous for new application development with SWCN metasurfaces for solid-state single-photon source and single-atom detector engineering. – [1] I.V.Bondarev and C.M.Adhikari, PR Appl. 15, 034001 (2021); [2] J.A.Roberts, et al., Nano Lett. 19, 3131 (2019).