Some possibilities for coherent optical amplification of a normally-incident and weak radiation field are reviewed based on various physical mechanisms, such as electronic quantum interference induced by a coupling laser field in a three-level system, field enhancement through the cavity confinement of a radiation field in a photonic crystal and field concentration seen in a transmitted near field through a metallic surface grating due to excitation of surface-plasmon-polariton modes. Numerical results are presented and discussed to demonstrate these interesting effects. The important role played by a longitudinal field resulting from the absorption by an induced three-dimensional plasma wave inside a doped semiconductor is analyzed using a nonlocal and non-adiabatic model.
Some possibilities for coherent optical amplification of a normally-incident and weak radiation field are reviewed based on various physical mechanisms, such as electronic quantum interference induced by a coupling laser field in a three-level system, field enhancement through the cavity confinement of a radiation field in a photonic crystal and field concentration seen in a transmitted near field through a metallic surface grating due to excitation of surface-plasmon-polariton modes. Numerical results are presented and discussed to demonstrate these interesting effects. The important role played by a longitudinal field resulting from the absorption by an induced three-dimensional plasma wave inside a doped semiconductor is analyzed using a nonlocal and non-adiabatic model.
Some possibilities for coherent optical amplification of a normally incident and weak radiation field are reviewed based on various physical mechanisms, such as electronic quantum interference induced by a coupling laser field in a three-level system, field enhancement through the cavity confinement of a radiation field in a photonic crystal and field concentration seen in a transmitted near field through a metallic surface grating due to excitation of surface-plasmon-polariton modes. Numerical results are presented and discussed to demonstrate these interesting effects. The modification to the spontaneous emission inside a photonic crystal is also studied. The important role played by a longitudinal field resulting from the absorption by an induced three-dimensional plasma wave inside a doped semiconductor is analyzed using a nonlocal and nonadiabatic model. Moreover, the coupling between two-dimensional plasmons and surface plasmon modes in the nonretardation limit is explored.
An experimentally feasible configuration of a prism coupler with an electromagnetically-induced-transparency (EIT) medium layer, e.g., a semiconductor-quantum-dot (SQD) medium, deposited upon its prism base is suggested for generating tunable surface-plasmon-polariton resonance. Such surface-plasmon-polariton resonance and optical excitation of a surface plasmon wave can be manipulated by switchable quantum interference among SQD multilevel transitions driven by two external control fields. When an incident probe field is coupled into a surface plasmon wave excitation mode, the surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) resonance at the interface between the SQD medium layer and the substrate will arise, and the quantum-coherently controllable reflection spectrum of the probe field on the prism base can be achieved. In this process, destructive and constructive quantum interference (determined by the intensity ratio of the two external control fields) in the SQD multilevel system plays a key role for achieving the tunable reflection spectrum. The EIT-based surface-plasmon-polariton resonance presented here will have three characteristics (some of them would be attractive): (i) switchable quantum interference exhibited by surface plasmon wave excitation, (ii) quantum-coherently controllable surface plasmon polaritons by external optical fields, (iii) surface wave sensitive to dispersion of the SQD quantum coherent medium. Such an effect of controllable optical response based on the quantum-interference switchable surface-plasmon-polariton resonance in the EIT-prism coupler may find some potential applications in design of new photonic and quantum optical devices.
This thesis encompasses fundamental theoretical research on plasmonics, electromagnetic coherence, and quantum complementarity.Three main topics are covered: surface-plasmon polaritons (SPPs), partial coherence of optical surface fields, and complementarity in vectorial photon interference.Existence of new SPP modes at planar single-interface and thinfilm geometries are predicted.It is further shown, for the first time, how a higher-order metal-slab mode, commonly not regarded useful, may turn into a strongly confined long-range surface mode in many situations where the fundamental long-range SPP does not exist and the single-interface SPP propagation is negligible.Partially coherent SPP fields are studied and a scheme to tailor the vectorial coherence of polychromatic SPPs in the Kretschmann setup by controlling the correlations of the source light is advanced.Generation and coherence of purely evanescent light fields are also examined.It is demonstrated that, for such fields, the coherence length in air can be notably shorter than the free-space wavelength.The analysis also reveals the possibility to excite an evanescent field that shares the polarization properties of blackbody radiation, yet with tunable coherence qualities.Polarization modulation in double-pinhole photon interference is explored to derive two general complementarity relations among distinguishability and visibility associated with genuine vector-light quantum fields of arbitrary state.The established framework uncovers a new intrinsic aspect of wave-particle duality of the photon, having no correspondence within the scalar quantum treatment.
We have studied the effect of plasma energy on the absorption coefficient of metallic photonic crystals doped with an ensemble of three-level quantum dots, which are interacting with each other via dipole-dipole interaction. The quantum dots are also interacting with coupled plasma-photon modes present in the system. A probe laser field is applied in order to study the absorption coefficient. We also consider the effect of quantum interference in our simulations, whereby two absorbed photons interfere with one another. Here the density matrix method has been used to calculate the steady-state and transient behavior of the absorption coefficient for the system. Two different field configurations are considered in our numerical simulations. In the first configuration, a probe field couples the ground state and two closely excited states. Absorption occurs due to transitions from the ground state to the two excited states. It is found that the position of the transparent peak moves when the plasma energy is changed. In other words, changing the plasma energy causes the system to switch between a transparent and an absorbing state. The strong coupling between plasmons and the quantum dots is responsible for this phenomenon. In the second configuration, the probe field couples with only one excited state, while a pump field couples to the other excited state. The transition between excited states is dipole forbidden. We observed that the peak in the absorption profile splits into two and also that the system exhibits gain with inversion due to the change in the plasma frequency, which is caused by quantum interference and coherence. These are interesting results and can be used make nanoscale plasma devices.
Surface plasmon polaritons are charge density waves of electrons in a metal, which are coupled to an electromagnetic field at a metal-dielectric interface. The electro- magnetic field associated with surface plasmons is confined, resulting in increased field intensities near the interface. Optical emitters placed near a metal film interact strongly with the surface plasmon modes present, not only modifying the radiation rates, but also the radiation profile. These emitters may be used to store and process information, and understanding their behaviour in the presence of a lossy metal film is important in determining the advantages and limitations of using surface plasmons. In this thesis, we wish to understand how we can optically control atoms by exploring two physical phenomena: first, the influence of surface plasmons on collective effects in an ensemble of emitters. Secondly, the single photon excitation of an emitter near a metal film. In the first case, we analyze the collective radiative behaviour of multiple classical emitters near a metal film that radiatively couple to the far-field through surface plasmon modes. We demonstrate that the contributions of dipolar image charges within the metal film significantly affect the cooperative emission of nearby sources, generating sub- and super-radiant emission that can be controlled with a suitably detuned external driving field. In the second case, we determine the excitation probability of an atom near a metal film by a single photon pulse that is time reversed. Using a quantum electro- dynamic description of absorbing dielectrics, we show that non-radiative decay will limit the excitation probability to about half of the maximum that could be achieved in the absence of losses.
In space situational awareness scenarios, the objects needed to be characterized and identified are usually quite far away and quite dim. Thus, optical detectors need to be able to sense these very dim optical signals. Quantum interference in a three-level system can lead to amplification of optical signals. If we put a three-level system into a cavity tuned to the frequency of an incoming optical signal, we anticipate the amplification possibilities should be increased proportional to the quality factor of the cavity. Our vision is to utilize quantum dots in photonic crystal cavities, but as a stepping stone we first investigate a simple three-level system in a free-space optical cavity. We investigate quantum interference and classical interference effects when a three-level system interacts with both a cavity field mode and an external driving field mode. We find that under certain circumstances the cavity field evolves to be equal in magnitude to, but 180° out-of-phase with the external pump field when the pump field frequency equals the cavity frequency. At this point the resonance fluorescence from the atom in the cavity goes to zero due to a purely classical interference effect between the two out-of-phase fields. This is quite different from the quantum interference that occurs under the right circumstances, when the state populations are coherently driven into a linear combination that is decoupled from any applied field - and population is trapped in the excited states, thus allowing for a population inversion and an amplification of incoming optical signals.