Quantum bianisotropy in light-matter interaction

TL;DR

This paper explores quantum bianisotropy and magnetoelectric effects in light-matter interactions, revealing how structured quantum environments can manipulate emitter properties through non-Maxwellian near fields with broken spacetime symmetry.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of quantum magnetoelectric near fields as non-Maxwellian, symmetry-breaking environments that enhance and control light-matter interactions at the quantum level.

Findings

Quantum ME near fields are non-Maxwellian with spacetime symmetry breaking.

Magnetoelectric coupling in meta atoms enables tunable quantum environments.

Quantum bianisotropy bridges classical and quantum electromagnetics in metamaterials.

Abstract

Quantum bianisotropy and chirality are fundamental concepts in light matter interaction that describe how materials with broken symmetries respond to electromagnetic fields at the level of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics. In quantum bianisotropy, magnetoelectric (ME) energy plays a critical role in mediating and enhancing light matter interactions. This concept is essential for bridging the gap between classical electromagnetics (where bianisotropy often involves field nonlocality) and quantum mechanics in metamaterials. The precise manipulation of a quantum emitter's properties at a subwavelength scale is due to near fields, which effectively function as a tunable environment. We show that the ME near field, interpreted as a structure combining the effect of bianisotropy (chirality) with a quantum atmosphere, is a nonMaxwellian field with spacetime symmetry breaking. Quantum ME fields arise from the dynamic modulation and topological coupling of magnetization and electric polarization within ME meta atoms, specific subwavelength structural elements with magnetic and dielectric subsystems in magnetic insulators.