Metal optics, optical antennas, and spontaneous hyper-emission

Abstract

For almost 50 years, stimulated emission has been stronger and far more important than spontaneous emission. Indeed spontaneous emission has been looked down upon, as a weak effect. Now a new science of enhanced spontaneous emission is emerging, that will make spontaneous emission faster than any possible stimulated emission. This new science depends upon the use of nanoscale metallic optical elements, as antennas for spontaneous emission.