Thermally induced decay of the atom in a photonic bandgap reservoir

Abstract

We investigate thermally induced partial decay of a two-level atom into a photonic bandgap reservoir in regimes when the atomic transition is tuned in the forbidden gap or at the band edge. The atom decays into a quasi-equilibrium state different from those given by the Boltzmann statistical distribution. We take values of physical parameters typical for Rydberg atoms and currently existing photonic crystals. We show that specific thermally induced transitions can be significant for such Rydberg atoms even at bandgap frequencies provided that there is a peak in the density of modes at the band edge. We point out a temperature sensitivity of microwave quantum optics devices based on photonic band structures due to temperature-dependent transitions and level shifts in regimes when important quantum transitions occur at energies near to band-edge frequencies.