From Quantum Optics to Energy and Momentum Transport in Macroscopic Structures
Abstract
One of the most intriguing quantum phenomena of light is the wave–particle duality which is related to the inability of the classical wave and particle concepts to fully describe the behavior of quantum objects. Theoretically, the wave features of the electromagnetic field, such as interference, follow from the solution of Maxwell's equations while particle features are a consequence of the field quantization, in which the electromagnetic field is described to consist of discrete energy packets, photons. Due to the wave–particle duality, for example, simultaneous description of optical absorption, emission, and interference of propagating fields has conventionally not been considered feasible using local optical models but has required using Maxwell's equations with stochastic source terms accounting for the wave–particle duality. Also the description of the momentum of light in a medium has been problematic.
In the research described in this thesis, the quantized fluctuational electrodynamics (QFED) model is derived based on combining the electromagnetic Green's functions to the field quantization to describe the position dependence of the photon number and local thermal balance in general non-equilibrium conditions, and to separate the electromagnetic field into parts propagating in different directions in resonant structures, which has conventionally been problematic due to interference effects. The QFED method is shown to resolve the previously found anomalies in the…
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