Theory of Cherenkov radiation in periodic dielectric media: Emission spectrum

Abstract

The Cherenkov radiation is substantially modified in the presence of a medium with a nontrivial dispersion relation. We consider Cherenkov emission spectra of a point charge moving in general three- (3D) and two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals. Exact analytical expressions for the spectral distribution of the radiated power are obtained in terms of the Bloch mode expansion. The resulting expression reduces to a simple contour integral (3D case) or a one-dimensional sum (2D case) over a small fraction of the reciprocal space, which is defined by the generalized Cherenkov condition. We apply our method to a specific case of an electron moving with different velocities in a 2D square-lattice photonic crystal. Our method demonstrates an excellent agreement with numerically rigorous finite-difference time-domain calculations while being less demanding on computational resources.

arXiv commentto appear in Phys. Rev. A

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• Spatial distribution of Cherenkov radiation in periodic dielectric media
• Efficient construction of maximally localized photonic Wannier functions: locality criterion and initial conditions
• Quantum direct cause across the Cherenkov threshold in circuit QED