Anisotropic Photon Emission Enhancement near Carbon Nanotube Metasurfaces

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of the directionality effects in spontaneous emission and resonance fluorescence of a quantum two-level dipole emitter near an ultrathin closely packed periodically aligned single-wall carbon nanotube film. Such films present an example of highly anisotropic flexible metasurfaces that are now available experimentally. The nanotube alignment is shown to provide an extra measure for quantum control of dipolar spontaneous emission and resonance fluorescence in such systems, in addition to film thickness and composition parameters such as tube diameter, chirality and translational period. The processes studied are shown to be highly anisotropic, being enhanced by orders of magnitude in the direction perpendicular to the alignment and metasurface plane, contrasting with the commonly believed viewpoint of their uncontrollably random directionality.