Spontaneous emission from active dielectric microstructures

Summary form only given. Spontaneous emission is one of the key factors that determine the noise properties of photonic devices and the pump power threshold of lasers. The spontaneous emission in dielectric microstructures (micro-cavities, photonic crystals, optical waveguides, etc.) can to some extend be controlled and engineered due to the dependence of the emission rate on the location and polarisation of the emitters in the structure. This paper addresses the methods of quantum electrodynamics of dielectric media which enable calculation of the local rate of spontaneous emission in active microstructures.