Microscopic Theory of the Photon Recoil of an Atom in a Dielectric

2006/05/29 by Hao Fu, Fu, Hao, P. R. Berman +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0605242

Abstract

An atom recoils when it undergoes spontaneous decay. In this paper we present a microscopic calculation of the recoil of a source atom imbedded in a dielectric medium. We find that the source atom recoils with the canonical photon momentum nℏ k_0, where n is the index of refraction and ℏ k₀ is the photon momentum calculated at the source atom atomic frequency ω₀. We also show explicitly how the energy is conserved with the photon inside the medium.

Related

• Photon Momentum in Linear Dielectric Media
• Refraction of light and conservation laws
• Light propagation in dielectric materials
• An Effective Photon Momentum in a Dielectric Medium: A Relativistic Approach
• Recoil heating of a dielectric particle illuminated by a linearly polarized plane wave within the Rayleigh regime