Modification and control of the spontaneous emission from an M-type atom embedded in an anisotropic photonic crystal

We describe the spontaneous emission properties of an M-type five-level atom embedded in a photonic crystal (PC), which is coherently driven by two external laser fields. It leads to two types of quantum interference: reservoir-induced interference and laser-induced interference. Considering different detunings of atomic transition frequencies from band edges, we reveal some interesting phenomena such as spectral-line enhancement, spectral-line suppression, spectral-line narrowing, reservoir-induced cancellation of spontaneous emission and the appearance of dark lines, which originate from the quantum interference effects and the control of external laser fields. These investigations suggest possible applications in quantum optics, optical communications and in the fabrication of novel optoelectronic devices.