Quantum Electrodynamics near a Huttner-Barnett dielectric

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive quantum electrodynamics framework near dispersive, absorbing dielectric media using the Huttner-Barnett model, enabling precise calculations of atomic interactions and decay rates close to such materials.

Contribution

It introduces an exact photon propagator in absorbing media and applies it to compute atomic energy shifts and decay rates near dielectric surfaces.

Findings

Derived an exact photon propagator in absorbing dielectrics.

Calculated atomic energy-level shifts near dielectric mirrors.

Analyzed changes in spontaneous emission rates due to the medium.

Abstract

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 opens a new 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 $\boldsymbol{\mu}\cdot\mathbf{D}$ of the atomic dipole moment to the electromagnetic displacement field. We apply the newly developed formalism to calculate the one-loop correction to the atomic electron propagator and find the energy-level shift and changes in the spontaneous decay rates for a neutral atom close to an absorptive dielectric mirror.