Nonlinear optical signals from an assembly of N noninteracting particles
consist of an incoherent and a coherent component, whose magnitudes scale \sim
N and \sim N(N-1), respectively. A unified microscopic description of both
types of signals is developed using a quantum electrodynamical (QED) treatment
of the optical fields. Closed nonequilibrium Green's function expressions are
derived that incorporate both stimulated and spontaneous processes. General
(n+1)-wave mixing experiments are discussed as an example of spontaneously
generated signals. When performed on a single particle, such signals cannot be
expressed in terms of the nth order polarization, as predicted by the
semiclassical theory. Stimulated processes are shown to be purely incoherent in
nature. Within the QED framework, heterodyne-detected wave mixing signals are
simply viewed as incoherent stimulated emission, whereas homodyne signals are
generated by coherent spontaneous emission.Comment: article: 33 pages (preprint format!) ''paper.tex'' figures: 17
figures (.eps) in folder ``figures'