Interaction of an atom with layered dielectrics

Abstract

We determine the energy-level shift experienced by a neutral atom due the quantum electromagnetic interaction with a layered dielectric body. We use the technique of normal-mode expansion to quantize the electromagnetic field in the presence of a layered, non-dispersive and non-absorptive dielectric. We explicitly calculate the equal-time commutation relations between the electric field and vector potential operators. We show that the commutator can be expressed in terms of a generalized transverse delta-function and that this is a consequence of using the generalized Coulomb gauge to quantize the electromagnetic field. These mathematical tools turn out to be very helpful in the calculation of the energy-level shift of the atom, which can be in its ground state or excited. The results for the shift are then analysed asymptotically in various regions of the system's parameter space -- with a view to providing quick estimates of the influence of a single dielectric layer on the Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a dielectric half-space. We also investigate the impact of resonances between the wavelength of the atomic transition and the thickness of the top layer.

20 pages, 16 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Dispersion forces in macroscopic quantum electrodynamics
• Casimir-Polder forces: A non-perturbative approach
• Force on a neutral atom near conducting microstructures
• On the interaction of a charge with a thin plasma sheet
• Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a dielectric slab
• Quantum Electrodynamics near a Dielectric Half-space
• Reconsidering the quantization of electrodynamics with boundary conditions and some measurable consequences

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Field theoretic description of partially reflective surfaces
• Quantum Electrodynamics near a Huttner-Barnett dielectric
• Manipulating the Coulomb interaction: A Green's function perspective
• Quantum two-photon emission in a photonic cavity
• Regimes of the lateral van der Waals force in the presence of dielectrics