Scaling the spatial fluctuation of spontaneous emission suppression in photonic crystals

The propagation and emission of light in a real photonic crystal is routinely affected by the intrinsic disorder and its finite-size. Thus, theoretical calculation based on the notion of a defect free crystal with an infinite thickness is irrational in the real world experiments. Here, we report an acute modification of light propagation and emission induced by the finite-size of the crystal. We have measured the emission intensity and rate from single domain of the crystal to study the finite size effect on the spontaneous emission suppression. The results show spatial fluctuation of spontaneous emission suppression across domains that have a linear scaling with crystal size. The results have implications in contriving devices pertaining to controlled spontaneous emission such as in cavity quantum electrodynamics.