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Physical Review A

Quantization of electrodynamics in nonlinear dielectric media

Mark S. Hillery, Leonard D. Mlodinow

Published Oct 1, 1984• 144 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We point out some problems with the usual quantum-mechanical theory of electrodynamics in nonlinear dielectric media which is used in nonlinear optics. In order to understand these problems, the Hamiltonian formulation of the theory is examined. It is found that many of the difficulties in the usual theory are a result of the fact that the canonical momentum for the interacting theory is not the same as that for the free electromagnetic field theory.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.30.1860

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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.
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We construct a quantum theory of light in nonlinear dielectric media with dispersion and absorption. We employ a mesoscopic model for the light-matter interaction that include a fourth-order nonlinearity in the material response. Quantization is performed by constructing an effective action in a path-integral formalism by integrating out matter and bath degrees of freedom. We show how a nonlinear response function associated with Kerr nonlinearity is obtained through the model and, after full field quantization, we derive the Feynman rules from this theory.
The theory of quantum effects in nonlinear dielectric media is developed. The nonlinear dielectric media is influenced by an external pumping field. The diagonalization of the Hamiltonian of a quantized field is obtained by the canonical Bogoliubov transformations. The transformations allow us to obtain the general expressions for the number of created photons and for the degree of squeezing. In the case of a plane pumping wave, for example, the results are calculated by using the zero order of the secular perturbation theory, with small parameters characterizing the medium nonlinearity. The Heisenberg equations of motion are obtained for non-stationary case and a commonly used Hamiltonian is derived from the first principles of quantum electrodynamics.