Microscopic and macroscopic descriptions of electromagnetic-field propagation in nonlinear dispersive and absorbing media

Verne L. Jacobs

doi:10.1117/12.914734

8 February 2012 Microscopic and macroscopic descriptions of electromagnetic-field propagation in nonlinear dispersive and absorbing media

Verne L. Jacobs

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8273, Advances in Slow and Fast Light V; 82730Z (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.914734
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2012, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Microscopic and macroscopic descriptions of electromagnetic-field propagation relevant to resonant pumpprobe optical phenomena, such as electromagnetically induced transparency, in quantized many-electron systems are formulated within the framework of a general reduced-density-matrix approach. Time-domain (equation-of-motion) and frequency-domain (resolvent-operator) formulations are developed in a unified and self-consistent manner. A semiclassical perturbation-theory treatment of the electromagnetic interaction is adopted, in which the electromagnetic field is described as a classical field satisfying either the microscopic form or the macroscopic form of the Maxwell equations. However, it is emphasized that a quantized-field approach is essential for a fully self-consistent quantummechanical formulation. Compact Liouville-space operator expressions are obtained for the linear and the general (n'th order) non-linear electromagnetic-response tensors for moving many-electron systems. These expressions can be evaluated for coherent initial electronic excitations and for the full tetradic-matrix form of the Liouville-space selfenergy operator in the Markov (short-memory-time) approximation. Environmental interactions can be treated in terms of the Liouville-space self-energy operator, and the influence of Zeeman coherences on electromagnetic-field propagation can be investigated by including an applied magnetic field together with the electromagnetic field.

Citation Download Citation

Verne L. Jacobs "Microscopic and macroscopic descriptions of electromagnetic-field propagation in nonlinear dispersive and absorbing media", Proc. SPIE 8273, Advances in Slow and Fast Light V, 82730Z (8 February 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.914734

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