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Physical Review A

Back-reaction effects of quantum vacuum in cavity quantum electrodynamics

Iacopo Carusotto, Simone De Liberato, Dario Gerace, Cristiano Ciuti

Published Feb 7, 2012• 50 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We theoretically study an optical system in which the back-reaction of quantum vacuum manifests itself as a sizable suppression of the absorption by a three-level emitter embedded in an optical cavity. A theoretical model including the anti-rotating-wave terms of the light-matter interaction Hamiltonian is developed to describe the conversion of zero-point fluctuations into observable radiation, as well as the back-reaction of the quantum vacuum onto the emitter.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.023805

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We theoretically study an optical system in which the back-reaction of quantum vacuum manifests itself as a sizable suppression of the absorption by a three-level emitter embedded in an optical cavity. A theoretical model including the anti-rotating-wave terms of the light-matter interaction Hamiltonian is developed to describe the conversion of zero-point fluctuations into observable radiation, as well as the back-reaction of the quantum vacuum onto the emitter.
We consider theoretically a semiconductor nanostructure embedded in one-dimensional microcavity and study the modification of its electron energy spectrum by the vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. To solve the problem, a nonperturbative diagrammatic approach based on the Green's function formalism is developed. It is shown that the interaction of the system with the vacuum fluctuations of the optical cavity opens gaps within the valence band of the semiconductor. The approach is verified for the case of large photon occupation numbers, proving the validity of the model by comparing to previous studies of the semiconductor system excited by a classical electromagnetic field. The developed theory is of general character and allows for unification of quantum and classical descriptions of the strong light-matter interaction in semiconductor structures.
Introduction Ever since 1916/17 when Einstein argued [45] [46] that spontaneous emission must occur if matter and radiation are to achieve thermal equilibrium, physicists have believed that spontaneous emission is an inherent quantum mechanical property of atoms and that excited atoms inevitably radiate. This view, however, overlooks the fact that spontaneous emission is a consequence of the coupling of quantized energy states of atoms with the quantized radiation field, and is a manifestation of quantum noise or of emission ‘stimulated’ by ‘vacuum fluctuations’. An infinity of vacuum states is available to the photon radiated by an excited atom placed in free space, leading to the effective irreversibility of such emissions. If these vacuum states are modified, as for example by placing an excited atom between closely spaced mirrors or in a small cavity (essentially the Casimir effect), spontaneous emission can be greatly inhibited or enhanced or even made reversible. Recent advances in atomic and optical techniques have made it possible to control and manipulate spontaneous emission. A whole new branch of quantum optics called ‘cavity QED’ has developed since 1987 utilizing these dramatic changes in spontaneous emission rates in cavities to construct new kinds of microscopic masers or micromasers that operate with a single atom and a few photons or with photons emitted in pairs in a two-photon transition.
We present a full quantum theory for the dissipative dynamics of an optical cavity in the ultra-strong light-matter coupling regime, in which the vacuum Rabi frequency is comparable to the electronic transition frequency and the anti-resonant terms of the light-matter coupling play an important role. In particular, our model can be applied to the case of intersubband transitions in doped semiconductor quantum wells embedded in a microcavity. The coupling of the intracavity photonic mode and of the electronic polarization to the external, frequency-dependent, dissipation baths is taken into account by means of quantum Langevin equations in the input-output formalism. Observable spectra (reflection, absorption, transmission and electroluminescence) are calculated analytically in the case of a time-independent vacuum Rabi frequency.
Vacuum induced coherence in a strongly coupled cavity consisting of a three-level system is studied theoretically. The effects of the strong coupling to electromagnetic field vacuum are examined by solution of an open-system quantum master equation. The numerical results show that the system exhibits population trapping, and the numerical results are interpreted with analytical expressions derived from a new basis in the weak excitation regime. We further show that the generated effects can be probed with weak external fields. Moreover, it is shown that the induced coherence can be controlled by the applied field parameters like field detuning. Finally, we study the trapping dynamics in the strong field excitation regime, and also demonstrate that a recently proposed asymmetric pumping regime (limited to the weak coupling regime) can remove the radiative decay of coherent Rabi oscillations, with both weak and strong excitation fields.
We report a theoretical study of the optical properties of a three-level emitter embedded in an optical cavity including the non-rotating wave terms of the light-matter interaction Hamiltonian. Rabi oscillations induced by a continuous wave drive laser are responsible for a periodic time-modulation of the effective cavity resonance, which results in a significant dynamical Casimir emission. A clear signature of the back-action effect of the dynamical Casimir emission onto the drive laser is visible as a sizable suppression of its absorption.
A light-matter interaction modified by the material environment is one of the central topics in quantum electrodynamics. While a strong coupling between a single emitter and a cavity and the Markovian (exponential) relaxation regime are most straightforwardly covered by theory, real physical systems that include also various line broadening effects may possess a much more complicated behavior. Here we propose a theoretical framework to account for nonradiative interaction effects in emission in photonic and plasmonic cavities. The quantum electrodynamics model formulated via a stochastic Hamiltonian approach has been developed with nonradiative line broadening introduced via the Kubo oscillator model. The impact of competing radiative and nonradiative processes on the emitter dynamics has been studied, showing that nonradiative relaxations, having significant impact on processes in high-QQQ photonic cavities, are much less influential in the plasmonic regime. The developed theoretical framework is not restricted to the emitter in a cavity example, but represents a general tool for multiple stochastic Hamiltonian evolution, important for various types of interactions where either classical or quantum noise is present.