Eur. Phys. J. D 46, 173-177 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00268-4

Spontaneous decay of an excited atom placed near a rectangular plate

Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences and Technology, 1 Mac Dinh Chi Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

Corresponding author: ^a htdung8@yahoo.com

Received: 27 June 2007
Revised: 8 September 2007
Published online: 21 September 2007

Abstract

Using the Born expansion of the Green tensor, we consider the spontaneous decay rate of an excited atom placed in the vicinity of a rectangular plate. We discuss the limitations of the commonly used simplifying assumption that the plate extends to infinity in the lateral directions and examine the effects of the atomic dipole moment orientation, atomic position, and plate boundary and thickness on the atomic decay rate. In particular, it is shown that due to the plate finite size, the spontaneous decay may be inhibited even when the atom is situated very close to the surface, and that in the boundary region, the spontaneous decay rate can be strongly modified.