2016/04/11 by S. Bugler-Lamb, Bugler-Lamb, S., S. A. R. Horsley +1
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1604.03094
openalex publication_date 2016/04/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In recent years, a rigorous quantum mechanical model for the interaction between light and macroscopic dispersive, lossy dielectrics has emerged -macroscopic QED- allowing the application of the usual methods of quantum field theory. Here, we apply time dependent perturbation theory to a general class of problems involving time dependent lossy, dispersive dielectrics. The model is used to derive polariton excitation rates in three illustrative cases, including that of a travelling Gaussian perturbation to the susceptibility of an otherwise infinite homogeneous dielectric, motivated by recent experiments on analogue Hawking radiation. We find that the excitation rate is increased when the wave--vector and frequency of each polariton in the pair either satisfies (or nearly satisfies) the dispersion relation for electromagnetic waves, or is close to a material resonance.