93 research outputs found
Quantum state transformation by dispersive and absorbing four-port devices
The recently derived input-output relations for the radiation field at a
dispersive and absorbing four-port device [T. Gruner and D.-G. Welsch, Phys.
Rev. A 54, 1661 (1996)] are used to derive the unitary transformation that
relates the output quantum state to the input quantum state, including
radiation and matter and without placing frequency restrictions. It is shown
that for each frequency the transformation can be regarded as a well-behaved
SU(4) group transformation that can be decomposed into a product of U(2) and
SU(2) group transformations. Each of them may be thought of as being realized
by a particular lossless four-port device. If for narrow-bandwidth radiation
far from the medium resonances the absorption matrix of the four-port device
can be disregarded, the well-known SU(2) group transformation for a lossless
device is recognized. Explicit formulas for the transformation of Fock-states
and coherent states are given.Comment: 24 pages, RevTe
Photonic excess noise and wave localization
This is a theory for the effect of localization on the super-Poissonian noise
of radiation propagating through an absorbing disordered waveguide.
Localization suppresses both the mean photon current I and the noise power P,
but the Fano factor P/I is found to remain unaffected. For strong absorption
the Fano factor has the universal value 1+3f/2 (with f the Bose-Einstein
function), regardless of whether the waveguide is long or short compared to the
localization length.Comment: 3 pages including 3 figure
The Energy Density in the Casimir Effect
We compute the expectations of the squares of the electric and magnetic
fields in the vacuum region outside a half-space filled with a uniform
dispersive dielectric. We find a positive energy density of the electromagnetic
field which diverges at the interface despite the inclusion of dispersion in
the calculation. We also investigate the mean squared fields and the energy
density in the vacuum region between two parallel half-spaces. Of particular
interest is the sign of the energy density. We find that the energy density is
described by two terms: a negative position independent (Casimir) term, and a
positive position dependent term with a minimum value at the center of the
vacuum region. We argue that in some cases, including physically realizable
ones, the negative term can dominate in a given region between the two
half-spaces, so the overall energy density can be negative in this region.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures; 3 references and some new material in Sect. 4.4
adde
Three-dimensional quantization of the electromagnetic field in dispersive and absorbing inhomogeneous dielectrics
A quantization scheme for the phenomenological Maxwell theory of the full
electromagnetic field in an inhomogeneous three-dimensional, dispersive and
absorbing dielectric medium is developed. The classical Maxwell equations with
spatially varying and Kramers-Kronig consistent permittivity are regarded as
operator-valued field equations, introducing additional current- and
charge-density operator fields in order to take into account the noise
associated with the dissipation in the medium. It is shown that the equal-time
commutation relations between the fundamental electromagnetic fields
and and the potentials and in the Coulomb gauge
can be expressed in terms of the Green tensor of the classical problem. From
the Green tensors for bulk material and an inhomogeneous medium consisting of
two bulk dielectrics with a common planar interface it is explicitly proven
that the well-known equal-time commutation relations of QED are preserved
Spontaneous decay in the presence of dispersing and absorbing bodies: general theory and application to a spherical cavity
A formalism for studying spontaneous decay of an excited two-level atom in
the presence of dispersing and absorbing dielectric bodies is developed. An
integral equation, which is suitable for numerical solution, is derived for the
atomic upper-state-probability amplitude. The emission pattern and the power
spectrum of the emitted light are expressed in terms of the Green tensor of the
dielectric-matter formation including absorption and dispersion. The theory is
applied to the spontaneous decay of an excited atom at the center of a
three-layered spherical cavity, with the cavity wall being modeled by a
band-gap dielectric of Lorentz type. Both weak coupling and strong coupling are
studied, the latter with special emphasis on the cases where the atomic
transition is (i) in the normal-dispersion zone near the medium resonance and
(ii) in the anomalous-dispersion zone associated with the band gap. In a
single-resonance approximation, conditions of the appearance of Rabi
oscillations and closed solutions to the evolution of the atomic state
population are derived, which are in good agreement with the exact numerical
results.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, typos fixed, 1 figure adde
Alternative approach to electromagnetic field quantization in nonlinear and inhomogeneous media
A simple approach is proposed for the quantization of the electromagnetic
field in nonlinear and inhomogeneous media. Given the dielectric function and
nonlinear susceptibilities, the Hamiltonian of the electromagnetic field is
determined completely by this quantization method. From Heisenberg's equations
we derive Maxwell's equations for the field operators. When the nonlinearity
goes to zero, this quantization method returns to the generalized canonical
quantization procedure for linear inhomogeneous media [Phys. Rev. A, 43, 467,
1991]. The explicit Hamiltonians for the second-order and third-order nonlinear
quasi-steady-state processes are obtained based on this quantization procedure.Comment: Corrections in references and introductio
Spontaneous emission of an atom in front of a mirror
Motivated by a recent experiment [J. Eschner {\it et al.}, Nature {\bf 413},
495 (2001)], we now present a theoretical study on the fluorescence of an atom
in front of a mirror. On the assumption that the presence of the distant mirror
and a lens imposes boundary conditions on the electric field in a plane close
to the atom, we derive the intensities of the emitted light as a function of an
effective atom-mirror distance. The results obtained are in good agreement with
the experimental findings.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, revised version, references adde
Noise-free scattering of the quantized electromagnetic field from a dispersive linear dielectric
We study the scattering of the quantized electromagnetic field from a linear,
dispersive dielectric using the scattering formalism for quantum fields. The
medium is modeled as a collection of harmonic oscillators with a number of
distinct resonance frequencies. This model corresponds to the Sellmeir
expansion, which is widely used to describe experimental data for real
dispersive media. The integral equation for the interpolating field in terms of
the in field is solved and the solution used to find the out field. The
relation between the in and out creation and annihilation operators is found
which allows one to calculate the S-matrix for this system. In this model, we
find that there are absorption bands, but the input-output relations are
completely unitary. No additional quantum noise terms are required.Comment: Revtex, submitted to Physical Review
Casimir force on amplifying bodies
Based on a unified approach to macroscopic QED that allows for the inclusion
of amplification in a limited space and frequency range, we study the Casimir
force as a Lorentz force on an arbitrary partially amplifying system of
linearly locally responding (isotropic) magnetoelectric bodies. We demonstrate
that the force on a weakly polarisable/magnetisable amplifying object in the
presence of a purely absorbing environment can be expressed as a sum over the
Casimir--Polder forces on the excited atoms inside the body. As an example, the
resonant force between a plate consisting of a dilute gas of excited atoms and
a perfect mirror is calculated
Dynamical Casimir effect without boundary conditions
The moving-mirror problem is microscopically formulated without invoking the
external boundary conditions. The moving mirrors are described by the quantized
matter field interacting with the photon field, forming dynamical cavity
polaritons: photons in the cavity are dressed by electrons in the moving
mirrors. The effective Hamiltonian for the polariton is derived, and
corrections to the results based on the external boundary conditions are
discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
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