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IEEE journal on multiscale and multiphysics computational techniques

Quantum Electromagnetics: A New Look—Part II

Weng Cho Chew, Anna Yan Liu, C. Salazar-Lazaro, Wei E. I. Sha

Published Jan 1, 2016• 52 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this work, quantization of electromagnetic fields in a general anisotropic inhomogeneous media is considered. First, the classical Hamiltonian is derived. Once the Hamiltonian is derived, with it the classical equations of motion follow. Next, the fields are elevated to become quantum operators, for which conjugate pairs are endowed with commutators. Since as previously shown, such commutators induce functional derivatives, the quantum equations of motion can be easily derived. Next, the mode decomposition of the fields is demonstrated. Upon substitution into the classical Hamiltonian, each mode then behaves like a simple harmonic oscillator. These oscillators can then be elevated to become quantum harmonic oscillators. Both the traveling wave modes and the standing wave modes are discussed. Furthermore, the longitudinal modes are described. Finally, the case of impressed sources are considered, with the corresponding Hamiltonian and field quantization. The Green's functions for the linear system are presented. Finally, the quantum Maxwell's equations are derived. A short discussion on field-atom interaction is given.

DOI
10.1109/jmmct.2016.2614800

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In this work, quantization of electromagnetic fields in a general anisotropic inhomogeneous media is considered. First, the classical Hamiltonian is derived. Once the Hamiltonian is derived, with it the classical equations of motion follow. Next, the fields are elevated to become quantum operators, for which conjugate pairs are endowed with commutators. Since as previously shown, such commutators induce functional derivatives, the quantum equations of motion can be easily derived. Next, the mode decomposition of the fields is demonstrated. Upon substitution into the classical Hamiltonian, each mode then behaves like a simple harmonic oscillator. These oscillators can then be elevated to become quantum harmonic oscillators. Both the traveling wave modes and the standing wave modes are discussed. Furthermore, the longitudinal modes are described. Finally, the case of impressed sources are considered, with the corresponding Hamiltonian and field quantization. The Green's functions for the linear system are presented. Finally, the quantum Maxwell's equations are derived. A short discussion on field-atom interaction is given.
A simple prescription for quantizing fields is developed and applied to the sytsem of interacting spins in an electromagnetic field. The classical equations of motion are written in the standard form $\ensuremath{-}i(\frac{d}{\mathrm{dt}})|V〉+\mathfrak{M}|V〉=0$, where the state vector ∣V〉|V〉∣V〉 has the state variables, such as the generalized coordinates and momenta, as its components, and the time development operator M\mathfrak{M}M contains derivative, integral, and matrix operators in general. By diagonalizing M\mathfrak{M}M and replacing the resulting classical variables with operators obeying boson commutation relations, the system is quantized, and the Hamiltonian and Heisenberg equations of motion are automatically cast into the harmonic-oscillator form. Thus the quantization is reduced to the simple problem of diagonalizing a matrix. This avoids the laborious process of finding a Lagrangian density (by trial and error in general), determining the canonical variables, forming the Hamiltonian density, and inventing transformations to creation and annihilation operators. Problems with zero-frequency modes, which can be annoying in the standard treatment, are automatically eliminated by the prescription. The bookkeeping of forward and backward waves, different branches of dispersion curves, etc., is simplified. In addition to affording a straightforward and simple method of quantizing fields, the method also gives the necessary and sufficient conditions for a Hamiltonian to be transformable into harmonic-oscillator form, gives a direct relation between the classical equations of motion and the Heisenberg quantum-mechanical equations, and gives a simple method of determining the constants of the motion.
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.
We present a succinct way to quantize Maxwell's equations. We begin by discussing the random nature of quantum observables. Then we present the quantum Maxwell's equations and give their physical meanings. Due to the mathematical homomorphism between the classical and quantum cases [1], the derivation of quantum Maxwell's equations can be simplified. First, one needs only to verify that the classical equations of motion are derivable from a Hamiltonian by energy-conservation arguments. Then the quantum equations of motion follow due to homomorphism, which applies to sum-separable Hamiltonians. Hence, we first show the derivation of classical Maxwell's equations using Hamiltonian theory. Then the derivation of the quantum Maxwell's equations follows in an analogous fashion. Finally, we apply this quantization procedure to the dispersive medium case. (This article is written for the classical electromagnetic community assuming little knowledge of quantum theory, an introduction of which can be found in [2, Lecs. 38 and 39].)
In this chapter we explain the procedure for quantizing classical fields, based on the preparatory work we did in the previous chapter. We have seen that classical fields can generally be treated as an (infinite) set of oscillator modes. In fact, for all fields we considered in the previous chapter, we were able to rewrite the Hamiltonian in a way such that it looked identical to the Hamiltonian for a generic (mechanical) oscillator, or a set of such oscillators. We therefore understand that, if we can find an unambiguous way to quantize the mechanical oscillator, we get the quantization of all classical fields for free! We thus start considering the mechanical harmonic oscillator and refresh the quantum mechanics of this system. The new idea is to associate the oscillator with a level for bosonic particles representing the quantized excitations of the oscillator. We then turn to a concrete example and show how the idea can be used to quantize the deformation field of the elastic string discussed in Section 7.2. In this case, the bosonic particles describing the excitations of the field are called phonons: propagating wave-like deformations of the string. As a next example, we revisit the low-lying spinfull excitations in a ferromagnet, already described in Section 4.5.3. Here, we start from a classical field theory for the magnetization of the magnet, and show how the quantization procedure leads to the same bosonic magnons we found in Chapter 4. Finally, we implement the quantization technique for the electromagnetic field, leading us to the concept of photons – the quanta of the electromagnetic field.
Quantization of the electromagnetic field (called quantum electromagnetics here) has been a fascinating and important subject since its introduction by Dirac in 1927. However, this knowledge is often inaccessible to technologists such as engineers. This subject will be discussed in its simplest terms so that it can be easily understood by a larger community of researchers. To this end, a new way of motivating Hamiltonian mechanics is presented. Furthermore, a novel way of deriving the quantum equations of motion for electromagnetics and Maxwell's equations is presented.
Canonical quantization of the electromagnetic (EM) field is carried out for the situation where the total charge and current densities are the sum of contributions from neutral dielectric atoms whose effect is to be described purely classically in terms of spatially dependent electric permittivity and magnetic permeability functions, and neutral, stationary radiative atoms whose interaction with the EM field is to be treated quantum mechanically. The coefficients for the expansion of the vector potential in terms of mode functions determined from a generalized Helmholtz equation are chosen as independent generalized coordinates for the EM field. The spatially dependent electric permittivity and magnetic permeability appear in a generalized Helmholtz's equation and the former also occurs in the mode function orthogonality and normalization conditions. The quantum Hamiltonian is derived in a generalized multipolar form rather than the minimal coupling form obtained in other work. The radiative energy is the sum of quantum harmonic oscillator terms, one for each mode. The modes are independent in the present case of exact mode functions associated with the spatially dependent electric permittivity and magnetic permeability, there being no direct mode-mode coupling terms. In the electric dipole approximation the electric interaction energy contribution for each mode and radiative atom is proportional to the scalar product of the dipole operator with the mode function evaluated at the atom, times the annihilation operator, plus the Hermitian adjoint. This form has been widely used in studies of radiative processes for atomic systems in dielectric media, and it is justified here via the canonical quantization procedure. The results apply to the theoretical treatment of numerous quantum optical experiments involving such interactions in the presence of passive, lossless, dispersionless, linear classical optics devices such as resonator cavities, lenses, beam splitters, and so on. An illustrative application of the theory for atomic decay in a one-dimensional Fabry-Perot cavity is given. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.