Spontaneous emission from a microwave-driven four-level atom in an anisotropic photonic crystal

The spontaneous emission from a microwave-driven four-level atom embedded in an anisotropic photonic crystal is studied. Due to the modified density of state (DOS) in the anisotropic photonic band gap (PBG) and the coherent control induced by the coupling fields, spontaneous emission can be significantly enhanced when the position of the spontaneous emission peak gets close to the band gap edge. As a result of the closed-loop interaction between the fields and the atom, the spontaneous emission depends on the dynamically induced Autler-Townes splitting and its position relative to the PBG. Interesting phenomena, such as spectral-line suppression, enhancement and narrowing, and fluorescence quenching, appear in the spontaneous emission spectra, which are modulated by amplitudes and phases of the coherently driven fields and the effect of PBG. This theoretical study can provide us with more efficient methods to manipulate the atomic spontaneous emission.