QED in the Presence of Arbitrary Kramers-Kronig Dielectric Media

Abstract

The phenomenological Maxwell field is quantized for arbitrarily space- and frequency-dependent complex permittivity. The formalism takes account of the Kramers--Kronig relation and the dissipation-fluctuation theorem and yields the fundamental equal-time commutation relations of QED. Applications to the quantum-state transformation at absorbing and amplifying four-port devices and to the spontaneous decay of an excited atom in the presence of absorbing dielectric bodies are discussed.

4 pages, LaTeX, contribution to the Sixth International Conference on Squeezed states and Uncertainty relations ICSSUR VI, Naples 24-29 May 1999