  We have theoretically studied the effect of deterministic temporal control of
spontaneous emission in a dynamic optical microcavity. We propose a new
paradigm in light emission: we envision an ensemble of two-level emitters in an
environment where the local density of optical states is modified on a time
scale shorter than the decay time. A rate equation model is developed for the
excited state population of two-level emitters in a time-dependent environment
in the weak coupling regime in quantum electrodynamics. As a realistic
experimental system, we consider emitters in a semiconductor microcavity that
is switched by free-carrier excitation. We demonstrate that a short temporal
increase of the radiative decay rate depletes the excited state and drastically
increases the emission intensity during the switch time. The resulting
time-dependent spontaneous emission shows a distribution of photon arrival
times that strongly deviates from the usual exponential decay: A deterministic
burst of photons is spontaneously emitted during the switch event.
