Defect band-gap structures for triggering single-photon emission

A three-dimensional (3D) analysis of the spontaneous decay of a single dipole embedded in a planar multilayer structure is given, with special emphasis on Kerr-tunable photonic band-gap materials for single-photon emission on demand. It is shown that the change in the density of states near a defect resonance is much more pronounced than that near the band edges. In particular, operation near the band edge as suggested from a ID analysis is little suited for controlling the photon emission.