Quantum optics of dispersive dielectric media (13 pages)

Roy J. Glauber, Maciej Lewenstein

Stefan Scheel, L. Knöll, D.‐G. Welsch

Quantization of the phenomenological Maxwell theory of the electromagnetic field in dispersive and absorbing dielectrics has been of increasing interest over the last years since it allows for a consistent formulation of quantum optics in the presence of dielectric bodies. We show, using a Dyson-type integral representation of the Green tensor, that the quantization scheme is consistent with QED for both isotropic and anisotropic media and therefore applies to arbitrary linear Kramers-Kronig media including amplifying media.

Yong Lee, Masamichi Yamanishi

We present a simple theory on the effect of optical dephasing on the spontaneous emission (SE) rate in a microcavity containing (absorbing) dispersive dielectric media based on a photon Green's-function formalism in which the reservoir damping of medium polarizations is included in a phenomenological way. The theory yields the well-known result that the SE rate in free space is modified by the real part of the refractive index at the transition frequency of an atom in a bulk dielectric. On the other hand, it turns out that the degree of the alteration of the SE rate in a high-Q microcavity with dispersive media is affected not only by the real part of the refractive index but also by the imaginary part of the refractive index that is associated with the dephasing of the photon field due to the reservoir damping, i.e., the destruction of self-interference of the photon field.

Stephen Mark Barnett

Michael E. Crenshaw

Heejeong Jeong, Chang‐Won Lee, Andrew M. C. Dawes +1 more

We investigate optical precursors transmitted through a double-Lorentz dielectric consisting of two adjacent narrow resonances. Compared to the patterns in a single-Lorentz dielectric, the transmitted envelope shows additional modulation that oscillates at the separation frequency between two resonances, corresponding to the doublet frequency separation. We use the weakly dispersive, narrow-resonance condition to analyze it, which compares favorably to our observations. This work will be meaningful to identify dielectric properties by analyzing multi-resonant media for application of optical communication.