PMID: 11309083Apr 20, 2001Paper

On the quantum physical relation between photon tunnelling and near-field optics

Journal of Microscopy
O Keller

Abstract

The standard theory of optical tunnelling based on a mathematical analogy between the time-independent one-particle Schrödinger equation describing electron tunnelling and the Helmholtz equation for the macroscopic electric field is criticized. In a classical perspective photons are related to the dynamics of the transverse part of the electromagnetic field, and with the assumption that the electrons in a coupled photon-atom system are driven in a linear fashion by the field, a rigorous integro-differential equation for the transverse field is established. In the near-field zone of matter a transverse self-field exists and this may cause the appearance of superluminality in optical tunnelling. In the wake of a brief review of the space-time dynamics of free photons, a first-quantized description of the birth process of a single polychromatic photon in the near-field region of an active atom (molecule, mesoscopic particle) is presented, and afterwards the link between photon localizability, Einstein causality and near-field photon tunnelling is discussed. On the basis of a new one-photon quantum theory of near-field scattering from a microscopic (or mesoscopic) object, it is shown that photon tunnelling always appears in photon-...Continue Reading

References

May 1, 1994·Physical Review. a·A M Steinberg, R Y Chiao
Sep 1, 1995·Physical Review. a·J E Sipe
Aug 2, 1993·Physical Review Letters·A M SteinbergR Y Chiao
Oct 24, 1994·Physical Review Letters·C SpielmannF Krausz
Aug 5, 2000·Nature·L J WangA Dogariu
Apr 20, 2001·Journal of Microscopy·J Broe, O Keller

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Citations

Jun 7, 2002·Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, Image Science, and Vision·Jacob Broe, Ole Keller

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