Quantum electrodynamics in photonic crystals and controllability of ionization energy of atoms

The periodic changes in the physical and chemical properties of the chemical elements are caused by the periodic change of the ionization energies, which are constant for each element that manifested in the Periodic Table. However, as has been recently shown the modification of the electromagnetic field in the photonic crystals gives rise to the modification of the electron electromagnetic mass. We show that the effect can significantly change the ionization energy of atoms placed in voids of photonic crystals consisting of metamaterials with a highly tunable refractive index and voids. The controllability of these materials gives rise to the controllability of the ionization energies over a wide range.