Spatially resolved photon statistics of general nanophotonic systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a general method within macroscopic QED to compute spatially and spectrally resolved photon statistics in complex nanophotonic systems, overcoming limitations of previous approaches.

Contribution

The authors develop a practical, general framework for calculating photon correlations in arbitrary nanophotonic environments, including lossy systems and retarded light propagation.

Findings

Photon correlations depend strongly on emission angle.

The method accurately models light statistics near plasmonic nanoparticles.

Results demonstrate the importance of going beyond simplified quantum optics models.

Abstract

While experimental measurements of photon correlations have become routine in laboratories, theoretical access to these quantities for the light generated in complex nanophotonic devices remains a major challenge. Current methods are limited to specific simplified cases and lack generality. Here we present a novel method that provides access to photon statistics resolved in space and frequency in arbitrary electromagnetic environments. Within the macroscopic QED framework, we develop a practical tool to compute electric field correlations for complex quantum systems by including lossy two-level systems that act as field detectors within the system. To make the implementation feasible, we use a recently developed multi-emitter few-mode quantization method to correctly account for fully retarded light propagation to the detectors. We demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed technique by studying the photon correlations of one and two emitters in close proximity to a plasmonic nanoparticle. The simulations show that even in these relatively simple configurations, the light statistics exhibit a strong angular dependence. These results highlight the importance of going beyond conventional quantum-optical approaches to fully capture the analyzed physical effects and enable the study of the quantum light generation in realistic nanophotonic devices.