Casimir Light in Dispersive Nanophotonics
Time-varying optical media, whose dielectric properties are actively modulated in time, introduce a host of novel effects in the classical propagation of light, and are of intense current interest. In the quantum domain, time-dependent media can be used to convert vacuum fluctuations (virtual photon...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society (APS)
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142135 |
| _version_ | 1826212595959332864 |
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| author | Sloan, Jamison Rivera, Nicholas Joannopoulos, John D Soljačić, Marin |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Sloan, Jamison Rivera, Nicholas Joannopoulos, John D Soljačić, Marin |
| author_sort | Sloan, Jamison |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Time-varying optical media, whose dielectric properties are actively modulated in time, introduce a host of novel effects in the classical propagation of light, and are of intense current interest. In the quantum domain, time-dependent media can be used to convert vacuum fluctuations (virtual photons) into pairs of real photons. We refer to these processes broadly as "dynamical vacuum effects" (DVEs). Despite interest for their potential applications as sources of quantum light, DVEs are generally very weak, presenting many opportunities for enhancement through modern techniques in nanophotonics, such as using media which support excitations such as plasmon and phonon polaritons. Here, we present a theory of weakly modulated DVEs in arbitrary nanostructured, dispersive, and dissipative systems. A key element of our framework is the simultaneous incorporation of time-modulation and "dispersion" through time-translation-breaking linear response theory. As an example, we use our approach to propose a highly efficient scheme for generating entangled surface polaritons based on time-modulation of the optical phonon frequency of a polar insulator. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:28:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/142135 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:28:31Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | American Physical Society (APS) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1421352023-01-27T18:30:40Z Casimir Light in Dispersive Nanophotonics Sloan, Jamison Rivera, Nicholas Joannopoulos, John D Soljačić, Marin Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Time-varying optical media, whose dielectric properties are actively modulated in time, introduce a host of novel effects in the classical propagation of light, and are of intense current interest. In the quantum domain, time-dependent media can be used to convert vacuum fluctuations (virtual photons) into pairs of real photons. We refer to these processes broadly as "dynamical vacuum effects" (DVEs). Despite interest for their potential applications as sources of quantum light, DVEs are generally very weak, presenting many opportunities for enhancement through modern techniques in nanophotonics, such as using media which support excitations such as plasmon and phonon polaritons. Here, we present a theory of weakly modulated DVEs in arbitrary nanostructured, dispersive, and dissipative systems. A key element of our framework is the simultaneous incorporation of time-modulation and "dispersion" through time-translation-breaking linear response theory. As an example, we use our approach to propose a highly efficient scheme for generating entangled surface polaritons based on time-modulation of the optical phonon frequency of a polar insulator. 2022-04-27T16:02:34Z 2022-04-27T16:02:34Z 2021 2022-04-27T15:47:56Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142135 Sloan, Jamison, Rivera, Nicholas, Joannopoulos, John D and Soljačić, Marin. 2021. "Casimir Light in Dispersive Nanophotonics." Physical Review Letters, 127 (5). en 10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.127.053603 Physical Review Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Physical Society (APS) APS |
| spellingShingle | Sloan, Jamison Rivera, Nicholas Joannopoulos, John D Soljačić, Marin Casimir Light in Dispersive Nanophotonics |
| title | Casimir Light in Dispersive Nanophotonics |
| title_full | Casimir Light in Dispersive Nanophotonics |
| title_fullStr | Casimir Light in Dispersive Nanophotonics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Casimir Light in Dispersive Nanophotonics |
| title_short | Casimir Light in Dispersive Nanophotonics |
| title_sort | casimir light in dispersive nanophotonics |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142135 |
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