Spontaneous emission in anisotropic dielectrics

Messinger, A., Westerberg, N. and Barnett, S. M. (2020) Spontaneous emission in anisotropic dielectrics. Physical Review A: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 102, 013721. (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevA.102.013721)

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Abstract

The emission properties of atoms lie at the foundations of both quantum theory and light-matter interactions. In the context of macroscopic media, exact knowledge thereof is important both in current quantum technologies as well as in fundamental studies. While for isotropic media, this is a very well-studied problem, there are still big gaps in the theory of anisotropic media. In particular, to the best of our knowledge, an explicit expression for the spontaneous emission rate in general anisotropic media has not been presented. In this work, we first derive the quantised electromagnetic field operators to calculate the emission rate in uniaxial media. For the more general case of biaxial media we propose an approximate expression based on interpolation between the limiting cases of uniaxial media. We support our model with numerical simulations which are in strong agreement for typical media configurations, and furthermore show how local field effects can be taken into account in the model.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Barnett, Professor Stephen and Messinger, Ms Anette and Westerberg, Dr Niclas
Authors: Messinger, A., Westerberg, N., and Barnett, S. M.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
Journal Name:Physical Review A: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Publisher:American Physical Society
ISSN:1050-2947
ISSN (Online):1094-1622
Copyright Holders:Copyright© 2020 American Physical Society
First Published:First published in Physical Review A: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics 102:013721
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy
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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
172865EPSRC DTP 16/17 and 17/18Tania GalabovaEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/N509668/1Research and Innovation Services
305200DTP 2018-19 University of GlasgowMary Beth KneafseyEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/R513222/1MVLS - Graduate School
301592Foundations and Applications of Optical Forces - Enhancement awardStephen BarnettThe Royal Society (ROYSOC)RP\EA\180010P&S - Physics & Astronomy
173378Astronomy and physics, theoretical physics and application physics / Quantum Theory. Royal Society Research Professorship.Stephen BarnettThe Royal Society (ROYSOC)RP150122P&S - Physics & Astronomy