Wide-angle interference and cavity effects in thin ZnS films

Interference effects are important for thin film devices which emit light. The presence of an optical cavity is able to modify the angular distribution and the decay rate of the spontaneous emission. Experiments with ZnS:Mn indicate that the emission can be modeled as radiation from an electrical dipole antenna with random orientation. Variation of the optical environment makes it possible to evaluate separately the radiative and nonradiative decay channels of all kinds of excited states.