Abstract
A theory of spontaneous decay process of an excited atom placed inside or outside (near the surface) a carbon nanotube has been developed. Numerical calculations of the atomic spontaneous decay enhancement factor have been performed for various achiral nanotubes. The effect of the nanotube surface has been demonstrated to dramatically increase the spontaneous decay rate - by up to 6 orders of magnitude compared with that of the same atom in vacuum. Such an increase is associated with the nonradiative decay via surface excitations in the nanotube. Possible applications of the effect predicted are discussed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 885-890 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Optika i Spektroskopiya |
Volume | 94 |
Issue number | 6 |
State | Published - 2003 |
Externally published | Yes |