A Tabulation and Critical Analysis of the Wavelength-Dependent Dielectric Image Coefficient for the Interaction Exerted by a Surface onto a Neighbouring Excited Atom

Abstract

The near-field interaction of an atom with a dielectric surface is inversely proportional to the cube to the distance to the surface, and its coupling strength depends on a dielectric image coefficient. This coefficient, simply given in a pure electrostatic approach by (eps-1) / (eps+1) with eps the permittivity, is specific to the frequency of each of the various relevant atomic transition : it depends in a complex manner from the bulk material properties, and can exhibit resonances connected to the surface polariton modes. We list here the surface resonances for about a hundred of optical windows whose bulk properties are currently tabulated. The study concentrates on the infrared domain because it is the most relevant for atom-surface interaction. Aside from this tabulation, we discuss simple hints to estimate the position of surface resonances, and how uncertainties in the bulk data for the material dramatically affect the predictions for the image coefficient. We also evaluate the contribution of UV resonances of the material to the non resonant part of the image coefficient.

submitted (Jan. 23, 2006) to Optics Communications

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