Controlling the emission of light? Size matters

In daily life light is often generated by spontaneous emission, for instance, in lighting, in LCD displays, and in DVD players. In this process, an excited quantum emitter, such as an atom, a molecule, or a quantum dot emits a photon. In modern science and technology spontaneous emission is notably being controlled by photonic crystals. Recently a team of scientists from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, have discovered how the size of such photonic crystals controls spontaneous emission.

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