Finite difference time-domain calculation of the spontaneous emission coupling factor in optical microcavities

A study has been conducted to examine the viability of a proposed general method for the beta factor calculation in optical microcavities. A method for calculating the spontaneous emission factor using the finite-difference time-domain method has been proposed and the resulting computation for the beta factor has also been cited. Beta factor computations facilitated for the estimation of the coupling to radiation modes in both the microdisk and the 2-D photonic crystal cavity. This has proven the effectiveness of the photonic crystal in suppressing in-plane radiation modes.