Rostock 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 48: Quantum Optics II
Q 48.7: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 14. März 2019, 12:00–12:15, S Ex 04 E-Tech
Measuring the Electromagnetic Vacuum Using Nonlinear Crystals — •Frieder Lindel1, Robert Bennett1,2, and Stefan Yoshi Buhmann1,2 — 1Institute of Physics, University of Freiburg — 2Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), Germany
When quantising the electromagnetic radiation field, one of the most fascinating consequences is the existence of fluctuations associated with the zero point energy. These vacuum fluctuations do not exist in the classical theory but still govern important observable processes in nature such as spontaneous emission, the Lamb shift or dispersion forces. All these processes show the existence of vacuum fluctuations only indirectly through their influence on other objects. Hence it was not until recent experiments that vacuum fluctuation have been observed directly for the first time using nonlinear crystals [1].
Using macroscopic quantum electrodynamics [2], we derive a general framework for the propagation of a laser field through a nonlinear crystal in the presence of vacuum fluctuation and hence for the description of these experiments. It does not include the paraxial approximation and it allows for general properties of the crystal, including absorption and dispersion, for reflective interfaces and for arbitrarily shaped input laser fields. Our results show that using nonlinear crystals one can in principle measure different properties of the vacuum fluctuations and hence analyse this fascinating state of the radiation field.
[1] C. Riek et al., Science 350, 420 (2015)
[2] S. Y. Buhmann, Dispersion Force I (Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2012)