Exciton luminescence in resonant photonic crystals

A phenomenological theory of luminescence properties of one-dimensional resonant photonic crystals is developed within the framework of classical Maxwell equations with fluctuating polarization terms representing non-coherent sources of emission. The theory is based on an effective general approach to determining linear response of these structures and takes into account formation of polariton modes due to coherent radiative coupling between their constituting elements. The general results are applied to Bragg multiple-quantum-well structures, and theoretical luminescence spectra of these systems are compared with experimental results. It is shown that the emission of such systems can be significantly influenced by deliberately introducing defect elements in the structure. The relation between absorption and luminescence spectra is also discussed.