Fractional density of states and the overall spontaneous emission control ability of a three-dimensional photonic crystal

Fractional density of states (FDOS) hinders the accurate measuring of the overall spontaneous emission (SE) control ability of a three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystal (PC) with the current widely used SE decay lifetime measurement systems. Based on analyzing the FDOS property of a 3D PC from theory and simulation, the excitation focal spot position averaged FDOS with a distribution broadening parameter was proposed to accurately reflect the overall SE control ability of the 3D PC. Experimental work was done to confirm that our proposal is effective, which can contribute to comprehensively characterizing the SE control performance of photonic devices with quantified parameters.