Few-mode Field Quantization for Multiple Emitters

Abstract

The control of the interaction between several quantum emitters using nanophotonic structures holds great promise for quantum technology applications. However, the theoretical description of such processes for complex nanostructures is a highly demanding task as the electromagnetic (EM) modes are in principle described by a high-dimensional continuum. We here introduce an approach that permits a quantized description of the full EM field through a "minimal" number of discrete modes. This extends the previous work in Ref. [1] to the case of an arbitrary number of emitters with arbitrary orientations, without any restrictions on the emitter level structure or dipole operators. We illustrate the power of our approach for a model system formed by three emitters placed in different positions within a metallodielectric photonic structure consisting of a metallic dimer embedded in a dielectric nanosphere. The low computational demand of this method makes it suitable for studying dynamics for a wide range of parameters. We show that excitation transfer between the emitters is highly sensitive to the properties of the hybrid photonic-plasmonic modes, demonstrating the potential of such structures for achieving control over emitter interactions.

A theoretical perspective on molecular polaritonics

“…The fact that the discrete modes are mutually coupled makes it able to reproduce even complex interference phenomena between the EM modes in the spectral density. While originally developed for a single emitter, 108 we have recently extended the approach to the case of several emitters, 109 or one emitter with several contributing transitions (such as different orientations of the dipole moments). This is enabled by defining a generalized spectral density that fully encodes the interaction between the EM modes and several emitters,…”