C. Van Vlack

Generalized effective mode volume for leaky optical cavities

We show explicitly how the commonly adopted prescription for calculating effective mode volumes is wrong and leads to uncontrolled errors. Instead, we introduce a generalized mode volume that can be easily evaluated based on the mode calculation methods typically applied in the literature, and which allows one to compute the Purcell effect and other interesting optical phenomena in a rigorous and unambiguous way.We show that for optical cavities with any finite dissipation, the term “cavity mode” should be understood as a solution to the Helmholtz equation with outgoing wave boundary conditions. This choice of boundary condition renders the problem non-Hermitian, and we demonstrate that the common definition of an effective mode volume is ambiguous and not applicable. Instead, we propose an alternative effective mode volume which can be easily evaluated based on the mode calculation methods typically applied in the literature. This corrected mode volume is directly applicable to a much wider range of physical systems, allowing one to compute the Purcell effect and other interesting optical phenomena in a rigorous and unambiguous way.

Spontaneous emission spectra and quantum light-matter interactions from a strongly coupled quantum dot metal-nanoparticle system

We investigate the quantum optical properties of a quantum-dot dipole emitter coupled to a finite-size metal nanoparticle using a photon Green-function technique that rigorously quantizes the electromagnetic fields. We first obtain pronounced Purcell factors and photonic Lamb shifts for both a 7- and 20-nm-radius metal nanoparticle, without adopting a dipole approximation. We then consider a quantum-dot photon emitter positioned sufficiently near the metal nanoparticle so that the strong-coupling regime is possible. Accounting for nondipole interactions, quenching, and photon transport from the dot to the detector, we demonstrate that the strong-coupling regime should be observable in the far-field spontaneous emission spectrum, even at room temperature. The vacuum-induced emission spectra show that the usual vacuum Rabi doublet becomes a rich spectral triplet or quartet with two of the four peaks anticrossing, which survives in spite of significant nonradiative decays. We discuss the emitted light spectrum and the effects of quenching for two different dipole polarizations.

Ultrahigh Purcell factors and Lamb shifts in slow-light metamaterial waveguides

Employing a medium-dependent quantum optics formalism and a Green function solution of Maxwells equations, we study the enhanced spontaneous emission factors (Purcell factors) and Lamb shifts from a quantum dot or atom near the surface of a %embedded in a slow-light metamaterial waveguide. Purcell factors of approximately 250 and 100 are found at optical frequencies for

Accessing quantum nanoplasmonics in a hybrid quantum dot-metal nanosystem: Mollow triplet of a quantum dot near a metal nanoparticle

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Finite-difference time-domain technique as an efficient tool for calculating the regularized Green function: applications to the local-field problem in quantum optics for inhomogeneous lossy materials

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Optical forces between coupled plasmonic nanoparticles near metal surfaces and negative index material waveguides

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Real time monitoring of laser beam welding keyhole depth by laser interferometry

polarized dipoles respectively placed 28\thinspace nm (0.02\thinspace

Third-harmonic generation in disguise of second-harmonic generation revisited: role of thin-film thickness and carrier-envelope phase

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Nonpeturbative cavity-QED between a single quantum dot and a metal nanoparticle

) above the slab surface, including a realistic metamaterial loss factor of

Ultrafast carrier-envelope-offset phase control of optical rectification in resonantly excited semiconductors

\gamma /2\pi =2 \mathrm{THz}