Quantized Fields in Nonlinear Dielectric Media: A Microscopic Approach

9602515 Hillery这是亨特学院物理系的Mark Hillery教授和澳大利亚昆士兰大学物理系的Peter Drummond教授合作的项目。在三年的时间里，希勒里教授将多次前往布里斯班，与德拉蒙德博士合作研究量子化电磁场在非线性介电介质中的传播。从根本上讲，这一点很重要，因为它提供了一个可通过实验获得的量子场论的例子。从实际的角度来看，如果要将这些领域的量子噪声用于光纤中的长距离通信，就必须理解这些领域中的量子噪声。用来处理这些现象的模型要么是唯象的，要么是基于宏观麦克斯韦方程的量子化。亨特学院最近发展了一种描述二能级原子介质中量子化场的微观方法。色散在研究介电介质中的量子化场的宏观方法中可能是一个问题，自然地被纳入这个理论中。这一描述将扩展到三能级原子的介质。这将允许该理论包含非线性过程，如参数下转换，这些过程不是由2能级原子介质描述的。相应的研究人员将主要集中在描述一个场如何从自由空间通过介质传播并再次出现到自由空间。对有限介质的研究应该允许合作者在更基本的层面上检验量子光学中使用的输入输出理论，并解决其中出现的一些问题。澳大利亚同行在宏观层面上开发的分析和数值技术将补充首席研究员和他的同事在亨特学院微观模型上开发的技术。

9602515 Hillery This is a collaborative project between Professor Mark Hillery of the Department of Physics, Hunter College, and Professor Peter Drummond of the Department of Physics, The University of Queensland, Australia. Over a three- year period, Professor Hillery will make several trips to Brisbane to work with Dr. Drummond on the study of the propagation of the quantized electromagnetic field in nonlinear dielectric media. This is important from a fundamental point of view because it provides an example of an experimentally accessible quantum field theory. From a practical point of view, the quantum noise in these fields must be understood if they are to be used for long distance communication in optical fibers as has been proposed. The models which have been used to treat these phenomena are either phenomenological or based on the quantization of the macroscopic Maxwell equations. A microscopic approach to the description of quantized fields in a medium of two-level atoms has recently been developed at Hunter College. Dispersion, which can be a problem in a macroscopic approach to quantized fields in dielectric media, is naturally incorporated into this theory. This description will be extended to a medium of 3-level atoms. This will allow the theory to encompass nonlinear processes, such as parametric down conversion, which were not described by the 2-level atom medium. The counterpart investigators will concentrate primarily on the description of how a field propagates from free space through a medium and emerges again into free space. The study of finite media should allow the collaborators to examine the input-output theories which are used in quantum optics at a more fundamental level and to address some of the problems which arise in them. The analytical and numerical techniques which the Australian counterpart has developed on the macroscopic level will complement what the principal investigator and his colleagues have developed at Hunter College on the microscopic model.