2012/06/30 by Claudia Eberlein, Robert Zietal · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Atom (system on chip) #Dielectric #Dipole #Electromagnetic field #Electron #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Photon #Physics #Polarizability #Propagator #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.86.022111
published as Phys. Rev. A 86, 022111 (2012) · 25 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2012/06/30 · openalex publication_date 2012/08/15 · arxiv updated 2012/08/17 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We build up a consistent theory of quantum electrodynamics in the presence of macroscopic polarizable media. We use the Huttner-Barnett model of a dispersive and absorbing dielectric medium and formulate the theory in terms of interacting quantum fields. We integrate out the damped polaritons by using diagrammatic techniques and find an exact expression for the displacement-field (photon) propagator in the presence of a dispersive and absorbing dielectric half-space. This offers a route to traceable perturbative calculations of the same kind as in free-space quantum electrodynamics. As a worked-through example, we consider the interaction of a neutral atom with a dispersive and absorbing dielectric half-space. For that, we use the multipolar coupling \ensuremathμ\ifmmode⋅\else\textperiodcentered\fiD of the atomic dipole moment to the electromagnetic displacement field. We apply this formalism to calculate the one-loop correction to the atomic electron propagator and to find the energy-level shift and changes in the spontaneous decay rates for a neutral atom close to an absorptive dielectric mirror.