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Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Vacuum field fluctuations and spontaneous emission in the vicinity of a dielectric surface

Heidar Khosravi, R. Loudon

Published May 8, 1991• 106 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract The electromagnetic field is quantized on the basis of the classical spatial modes of a system geometry in which half of space is filled by a dielectric of constant refractive index and the other half of space is empty. The vacuum field fluctuations and spontaneous emission rates are evaluated as functions of position and polarization both inside and outside the dielectric. Particular attention is given to the variations of these quantities in the vicinity of the interface. The source-field operator is derived for emission by atoms inside and outside the dielectric, in the direction perpendicular to the interface.

DOI
10.1098/rspa.1991.0052

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A quantization scheme for the electromagnetic field in absorbing dielectrics developed previously is extended to cover more complicated arrangements of dielectric media and to investigate various limiting cases of the general formalism. The limiting cases include media that have vanishing imaginary parts in their dielectric functions, because either the refractive index or the extinction coefficient vanishes. The further limit of a unit real dielectric function establishes the connection of the formalism with the well-known quantized field expressions in free space. Detailed calculations are presented for the quantization in the system of two different absorbing dielectrics in contact at a plane interface and for the cavity formed in the free space between two separated absorbing dielectrics. The forms of the field operators are determined for both systems, the canonical commutation relations are verified, and the spectra of the vacuum field fluctuations are calculated and illustrated. The calculations are restricted throughout to fields that propagate perpendicular to the dielectric interfaces. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

Physical Review A•Jun 1, 1996•112 citations
Abstract The electromagnetic field is quantized on the basis of the classical spatial modes of a system geometry in which half of space is filled by a dielectric of constant refractive index and the other half of space is empty. The vacuum field fluctuations and spontaneous emission rates are evaluated as functions of position and polarization both inside and outside the dielectric. Particular attention is given to the variations of these quantities in the vicinity of the interface. The source-field operator is derived for emission by atoms inside and outside the dielectric, in the direction perpendicular to the interface.
Abstract The electromagnetic field is quantized on the basis of the complete set of spatial modes of a plane dielectric slab of arbitrary thickness and refractive index but infinite transverse dimensions, located in otherwise empty three-dimensional space. The vacuum field fluctuations and spontaneous emission rates are evaluated as functions of position both inside and outside the slab. The source-field operator is derived for emission by atoms inside the slab, in the direction perpendicular to its surfaces. Particular attention is given to the possibility of suppressing spontaneous emission by placing atoms in, or close to, a dielectric slab.
The rate of spontaneous emission of an atom in the presence of an interface between two dielectrics was calculated using the quantum theory of electromagnetic radiation. Spatial distribution of the field for quasi-continuous spectrum inside an infinite cavity with ideally conducting walls was determined for multiple values of real refractive indices. Spontaneous emission in the continuous spectrum of the field was calculated using the known spatial Green’s function for a one-dimensional dielectric interface. The rate of spontaneous emission of an atom may either be higher or much lower than that in the free space, depending on the refractive indices and the distance between the atom and the interface between dielectrics.
A quantum-electrodynamic theory of spontaneous emission in presence of dielectrics and conductors is developed. The theory makes use of the master-equation techniques and the response-function formalism of part I of this series of papers. Various observable entities such as damping coefficients (lifetimes), Lamb shifts, and frequency shifts are related to the appropriate surface-dependent response functions. The results are valid for arbitrary geometries (involving linear dielectrics) and naturally contain, as a special case, the usual results of spontaneous emission in free space. As explicit examples we consider a two-level atom (also the multilevel atom) in presence of a plane dielectric interface and between two conducting plates. Formulas for the shifts and widths are given and their asymptotic behavior for large and short distances is discussed. The behavior when the atom is embedded inside the dielectric is different than when the atom is outside the dielectric. The origin of coherence in the present model is discussed and the coherence effects in this model are contrasted with those in Dicke's model. The results are also compared with those obtained by the image method. Exact expressions for the operator radiation-reaction fields are obtained in terms of the atomic polarization operators and response functions. Approximate results for such fields are also given. The far-zone behavior of the radiation fields is obtained in terms of response functions and the polarization operators. Some of the normally ordered correlation functions are also calculated. The connection of some of the theoretical results with a recent experimental work of Carniglia, Mandel, and Drexhage is discussed. The effect of anisotropy of the dielectric function on the lifetimes as well as on the far-field correlation functions is also considered. Finally the contribution to the shifts and widths due to the excitation of surface polariton modes is computed and the results are compared with those obtained by the quantization of surface polariton field. It is found that such surface modes contribute significantly to widths.
The electromagnetic field is quantized in dielectric media that show both loss and dispersion. The complex dielectric function of the medium is assumed to be a known function and the loss is modeled by Langevin forces in the forms of noise current operators. The noise current correlation function is related to the assumed dielectric function by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Field quantization is carried out for the infinite homogeneous dielectric, the semi-infinite dielectric, and the dielectric slab, where the fields in the second and third cases are restricted to propagation perpendicular to the dielectric surfaces. The forms of the vector potential operator are obtained in the different spatial regions for all three geometries, and in each case the required canonical commutation relation for the vector potential and its conjugate generalized momentum operator is verified. The spatial dependence of the vacuum field fluctuations is calculated for the two dielectric geometries that have surfaces.
A quantization scheme for the electromagnetic field in absorbing dielectrics developed previously is extended to cover more complicated arrangements of dielectric media and to investigate various limiting cases of the general formalism. The limiting cases include media that have vanishing imaginary parts in their dielectric functions, because either the refractive index or the extinction coefficient vanishes. The further limit of a unit real dielectric function establishes the connection of the formalism with the well-known quantized field expressions in free space. Detailed calculations are presented for the quantization in the system of two different absorbing dielectrics in contact at a plane interface and for the cavity formed in the free space between two separated absorbing dielectrics. The forms of the field operators are determined for both systems, the canonical commutation relations are verified, and the spectra of the vacuum field fluctuations are calculated and illustrated. The calculations are restricted throughout to fields that propagate perpendicular to the dielectric interfaces. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.