Quantum optical scattering by macroscopic lossy objects: A general approach

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive quantum optical scattering framework for lossy macroscopic objects, incorporating dispersive and inhomogeneous properties, and derives the input-output relations connecting ingoing and outgoing quantum states.

Contribution

It introduces a general, exact approach using modified Langevin noise formalism to describe quantum light scattering by complex lossy objects, including explicit relations for input-output bosonic operators.

Findings

Derived the input-output unitary relations for boson operators.

Connected classical electromagnetic dyadics to quantum scattering processes.

Obtained the reduced density operator for outgoing s-polaritons in far-field.

Abstract

We develop a general approach to describe the scattering of quantum light by a lossy macroscopic object placed in vacuum with no restrictions on both its dispersive optical response and its spatially inhomogeneous composition. Our analysis is based on the modified Langevin noise formalism, a recently introduced version of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics where scattering (s) modes are explicitly separated from electric (e) and magnetic (m) medium excitations; accordingly the formalism involves three kinds of non-interacting boson polaritons such that, in the lossless limit, s-polaritons reduce to standard photons whereas e- and m-polaritons disappear. We analytically derive the input-output unitary relation joining the boson operators of the ingoing and outgoing polaritons, a nontrivial result hinging upon original relations which comprehensively describe the transmission-emission-absorption interplay pertaining the classical radiation scattering, relations we here deduce by resorting to the dyadic Green's function properties. Besides we exploit the input-output relation to connect the output state of the field to the input one, this unveiling the role played by various classical electromagnetic dyadics in quantum optical scattering. We specialize the discussion to the most common situation where the object is initially not electromagnetically excited, with the ingoing electromagnetic state only containing s-polaritons, and we analyze the impact of the classical transmission and absorption dyadics on the transitions from ingoing to outgoing s-polariton and on the creation of outgoing e- and m-polaritons, respectively. Since the scattered radiation is collected in the far-field and the object is usually left unmeasured, we analytically derive the reduced density operator of the outgoing s-polaritons.