Quantum optics of dielectric media

Abstract

We discuss the quantum fluctuations of the fields associated with a broad class of optical scattering and transmission problems by developing the quantum electrodynamics of an idealized linear, but nonuniform, dielectric medium. We present and compare two quantization schemes for this purpose. The first is based on the expansion of the field in terms of a set of single-frequency solutions of the Maxwell equations. The second involves expanding the field in the set of plane-wave solutions of the Maxwell equations in the vacuum. The relation between the two quantization schemes is discussed in the framework of the scattering theory that connects them. The methods presented are used to show that various field components within a dielectric medium may be either superfluctuant or subfluctuant relative to their fundamental uncertainties in the vacuum. These alterations of the fluctuation properties of the fields are shown to lead to changes in the spontaneous emission rates for both electric and magnetic dipole transitions of excited atoms within or near dielectric media. We also analyze the quantum properties of the transition radiation emitted by a fast charged particle in passing from one dielectric medium to another.