Light-Matter Interactions via the Exact Factorization Approach
Abstract
The exact factorization approach, originally developed for electron-nuclear dynamics, is extended to light-matter interactions within the dipole approximation. This allows for a Schrodinger equation for the photonic wavefunction, in which the potential contains exactly the effects on the photon field of its coupling to matter. We illustrate the formalism and potential for a two-level system representing the matter, coupled to an infinite number of photon modes in the Wigner-Weisskopf approximation, as well as a single mode with various coupling strengths. Significant differences are found with the potential used in conventional approaches, especially for strong-couplings. We discuss how our exact factorization approach for light-matter interactions can be used as a guideline to develop semiclassical trajectory methods for efficient simulations of light-matter dynamics.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1803.02020,
title = {Light-Matter Interactions via the Exact Factorization Approach},
author = {Norah M. Hoffmann and Heiko Appel and Angel Rubio and Neepa T. Maitra},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.02020},
year = {2018}
}