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arXiv:quant-ph/9711039 · Physical Review A

Three-dimensional quantization of the electromagnetic field in dispersive and absorbing inhomogeneous dielectrics

Ho Trung Dung, L. Knöll, Dirk‐Gunnar Welsch

Published May 1, 1998• 373 citations
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Abstract

A quantization scheme for the phenomenological Maxwell theory of the full electromagnetic field in an inhomogeneous three-dimensional, dispersive, and absorbing dielectric medium is developed. The classical Maxwell equations with spatially varying and Kramers-Kronig consistent permittivity are regarded as operator-valued field equations, introducing additional current- and charge-density operator fields in order to take into account the noise associated with the dissipation in the medium. It is shown that the equal-time commutation relations between the fundamental electromagnetic fields $\mathbf{E}^$ and $\mathbf{B}^$ and the potentials $\mathbf{A}^$ and $\stackrel{^}{\ensuremath{\varphi}}$ in the Coulomb gauge can be expressed in terms of the Green tensor of the classical problem. From the Green tensors for bulk material and an inhomogeneous medium consisting of two bulk dielectrics with a common planar interface it is explicitly proven that the well-known equal-time commutation relations of QED are preserved.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.57.3931

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A quantization scheme for the phenomenological Maxwell theory of the full electromagnetic field in an inhomogeneous three-dimensional, dispersive, and absorbing dielectric medium is developed. The classical Maxwell equations with spatially varying and Kramers-Kronig consistent permittivity are regarded as operator-valued field equations, introducing additional current- and charge-density operator fields in order to take into account the noise associated with the dissipation in the medium. It is shown that the equal-time commutation relations between the fundamental electromagnetic fields \mathbf{E}^ and \mathbf{B}^ and the potentials \mathbf{A}^ and \stackrel{^}{\ensuremath{\varphi}} in the Coulomb gauge can be expressed in terms of the Green tensor of the classical problem. From the Green tensors for bulk material and an inhomogeneous medium consisting of two bulk dielectrics with a common planar interface it is explicitly proven that the well-known equal-time commutation relations of QED are preserved.
Recently a quantization scheme for the phenomenological Maxwell theory of the full electromagnetic field in an inhomogeneous three-dimensional, dispersive, and absorbing dielectric medium has been developed and applied to a system consisting of two infinite half-spaces with a common planar interface (H.T. Dung, L. Kn\"oll, and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 57, 3931 (1998)). Here we show that the scheme, which is based on the classical Green-tensor integral representation of the electromagnetic field, applies to any inhomogeneous medium. For this purpose we prove that the fundamental equal-time commutation relations of QED are preserved for an arbitrarily space-dependent, Kramers-Kronig consistent permittivity. Further, an extension of the quantization scheme to linear media with bounded regions of amplification is given, and the problem of anisotropic media is briefly addressed.
A quantization scheme for the radiation field in dispersive and absorptive linear dielectrics is developed, which applies to both bulk material and multilayer dielectric structures. Starting from the phenomenological Maxwell equations, where the properties of the dielectric are described by a permittivity consistent with the Kramers-Kronig relations, an expansion of the field operators is performed that is based on the Green function of the classical Maxwell equations and preserves the equal-time canonical field commutation relations. In particular, in frequency intervals with approximately vanishing absorption the concept of quantization through mode expansion for dispersive dielectrics is recognized. The theory further reveals that weak absorption gives rise to space-dependent mode operators that spatially evolve according to quantum Langevin equations in the space domain. To illustrate the applicability of the theory to inhomogeneous structures, the quantization of the radiation field in a dispersive and absorptive one-interface dielectric is performed. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
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.
We present a one-dimensional quantization scheme for the electromagnetic field in arbitrary planar absorbing and dispersive dielectrics, taking into account explicitly the finite extent of media. The complete form of the electric field operator includes a part that corresponds to the free fields incident from the vacuum towards the medium and a particular solution which can be expressed by using the classical Green-function integral representation of the electromagnetic field. By expressing the classical Green function in terms of the light modes of the dielectric structure, we obtain a natural generalization to absorbing media of the familiar method of mode expansion which strictly applies to non-absorbing media. As an application of our mode expansion, we obtain general quantum-optical input-output relations relating the output photon operators in vacuum to the input photon operators and to the reservoir noise operators. The input-output relations obtained are uniquely determined by the knowledge of the classical light modes of the planar system. We finally show that our quantization scheme for arbitrary planar dielectrics satisfies the prescribed equal-time commutation relations of QED.
After giving an outline of the quantization scheme based on the microscopic Hopfield model of a dielectric bulk material, we show how the classical phenomenological Maxwell equations of the electromagnetic field in the presence of dielectric matter of given space- and frequency-dependent complex permittivity can be transferred to quantum theory. Including in the theory the interaction of the medium-assisted field with atomic systems, we present both the minimal-coupling Hamiltonian and the multipolar-coupling Hamiltonian in the Coulomb gauge. To illustrate the concept, we discuss the input--output relations of radiation and the transformation of radiation-field quantum states at absorbing four-port devices, and the spontaneous decay of an excited atom near the surface of an absorbing body and in a spherical micro-cavity with intrinsic material losses. Finally, we give an extension of the quantization scheme to other media such as amplifying media, magnetic media, and nonlinear media.
We present a fully canonical quantization scheme for the electromagnetic field in dispersive and lossy linear dielectrics. This scheme is based on a microscopic model, in which the medium is represented by a collection of interacting matter fields. We calculate the exact eigenoperators for the coupled system and express the electromagnetic field operators in terms of them. The dielectric constant of the medium is explicitly derived and is shown to satisfy the Kramers-Kronig relations. We apply these results to treat the propagation of light in dielectrics and obtain simple expressions for the electromagnetic field in the medium in terms of space-dependent creation and annihilation operators. These operators satisfy a set of equal-space commutation relations and obey spatial Langevin equations of evolution. This justifies the use of such operators in phenomenological models in quantum optics. We also obtain two interesting relationships between the group and the phase velocity in dielectrics.