The interplay of self-trapping and self-quenching for resonant transitions in solids; role of a cavity

Abstract The purpose of this work is to present a simple quantitative theoretical study of the self-quenching process for resonant transitions when radiative self-trapping occurs both in samples of given concentration and shape, and in a planar cavity of known reflectivity and loss. Comparing with experimental results from literature for Cr3+ and Yb3+ for T⩾77 k, we show that self-trapping may increase the self-quenching process by reducing the active ion critical concentration. Considering that studies of effects of micro-cavities on optical transitions have generally dealt with resonant transitions, we think that another important outcome of this study is to show that, without having to rely on density of states coupling effects, a cavity of given Q may both increase or reduce the measured spontaneous lifetime of a resonant transition.