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Journal of Modern Optics

On quantization of the field in dielectrics

Michael E. Crenshaw, Charles M. Bowden

Published Mar 1, 2002• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The precepts behind the macroscopic and microscopic quantizations of the electromagnetic field in a dielectric are discussed. Using the correspondence principle, it is demonstrated that the macroscopic quantization procedure leads to incorrect equations of motion of embedded two-level atoms. The fundamental nature of the Lorentz viewpoint of electrodynamics is discussed.

DOI
10.1080/09500340110087660

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The precepts behind the macroscopic and microscopic quantizations of the electromagnetic field in a dielectric are discussed. Using the correspondence principle, it is demonstrated that the macroscopic quantization procedure leads to incorrect equations of motion of embedded two-level atoms. The fundamental nature of the Lorentz viewpoint of electrodynamics is discussed.
The macroscopic quantum theory of the electromagnetic field in a dielectric medium interacting with a dense collection of embedded two-level atoms fails to reproduce a result that is obtained from an application of the classical Lorentz local-field condition. Specifically, macroscopic quantum electrodynamics predicts that the Lorentz redshift of the resonance frequency of the atoms will be enhanced by a factor of the refractive index nnn of the host medium. However, an enhancement factor of (n2+2)∕3({n}^{2}+2)∕3(n2+2)∕3 is derived using the Bloembergen procedure in which the classical Lorentz local-field condition is applied to the optical Bloch equations. Both derivations are short and uncomplicated and are based on well-established physical theories, yet lead to contradictory results. Microscopic quantum electrodynamics confirms the classical local-field-based results. Then the application of macroscopic quantum electrodynamic theory to embedded atoms is proved false by a specific example in which both the correspondence principle and microscopic theory of quantum electrodynamics are violated.
A limited equivalence between microscopic and macroscopic quantizations of the electromagnetic field in a dielectric is established. We demonstrate that macroscopic canonical quantization of the electromagnetic field in an idealized absorptionless dielectric is equivalent to microscopic quantization followed by the elimination of the material degrees of freedom in the limit of an adiabatic response of the oscillators averaged over a quantization volume. We demonstrate that a loss of generality and extensibility accompanies the reduction of the full microscopic theory.
In a concise, but accessible for the first acquaintance form the procedure for the quantization of linear oscillator is set out. By analogy with this procedure the procedure of quantization (second quantization) of classical Maxwell’s electrodynamics is set up. The physical sense of the wave functions arguments of transverse electromagnetic field and its Fourier transformation is set up. One pay attention as for quantum coherent (almost a classic) states of the electromagnetic field and for photonics Fock states. Attention is drawn to the fact of absence the power of the universal content of such concepts as field amplitude, phase and number of particles (photons), which are used by experimenter’s to describe the states of a quantized field. The semi quantitative description the interaction processes of a quantum electromagnetic field with substance is set up. Specified situations are shown in which the discrepancy between the predictions of classical and quantum electrodynamics is noticeable at the macroscopic level.
Theories which have been used to describe the quantized electromagnetic field interacting with a nonlinear dielectric medium are either phenomenological or derived by quantizing the macroscopic Maxwell equations. Here we take a different approach and derive a Hamiltonian describing interacting fields from one which contains both field and matter degrees of freedom. The medium is modeled as a collection of two-level atoms, and these interact with the electromagnetic field. The atoms are grouped into effective spins and the the Holstein-Primakoff representation of the spin operators is used to expand them in inverse powers of the total spin. When the lowest order term of the interaction is combined with the free atomic and field Hamiltonians, a Hamiltonian describing a theory of noninteracting polaritons results. When higher order terms are expressed in terms of polariton operators standard nonlinear optical interactions emerge. These are then compared to the results of phenomenological and macroscopic theories. The theory is also used to derive an effective Hamiltonian describing counterpropagating modes in a nonlinear medium.
The macroscopic electromagnetic field is quantized in the presence of a uniformly moving permeable dielectric medium. We begin with the Maxwell-Minkowski equations, and the fields are quantized with the help of the Green function scheme. It is shown that for a homogeneous material, though the medium is assumed to be isotropic in its rest frame, it displays anisotropic character for the observer who detects the field observables in the laboratory frame. The field operators are expressed in terms of two independent infinite sets of bosonic field operators. Special attention is paid to the vacuum field fluctuation in moving media.
The macroscopic electromagnetic field is quantized in a linear isotropic permeable-dielectric medium by associating a proper damped quantum-mechanical harmonic oscillator with each mode of the radiation field. We introduce a particular form of the Langevin equation with two memory functions and two random impulses to describe the motion of a damped oscillator. A fully canonical approach is used to quantize the damped oscillator, the conjugate momentum is defined and the quantum-mechanical Hamiltonian is introduced. This brings forth a direct method for the quantization of the radiation field and at the same time introduces an effective Hamiltonian operator. Special attention is paid to the vacuum field fluctuation in permeable dielectrics.