Related papers: Momentum exchange between light and a single atom:…
An excited-state atom whose emitted light is back-reflected by a distant mirror can experience trapping forces, because the presence of the mirror modifies both the electromagnetic vacuum field and the atom's own radiation reaction field.…
Illumination of a two-dimensional system by a twisted light beam is considered in order to find specific effects caused by twisting. Direct interband transitions between the valence and conduction bands are supposed. The generation rates of…
A photon carries a momentum of, so one may anticipate light to "push" on any object standing in its path via the scattering force. In the absence of intensity gradient, using a light beam to pull a particle backwards is counter intuitive.…
A fundamentally new understanding of the classical electromagetic interaction of a point charge and a magnetic moment through order second order in 1/c is suggested. This relativistic analysis connects together hidden momentum in magnets,…
From Newtons third law, the principle of actio et reactio, we expect the forces between interacting particles to be equal and opposite. However, non-reciprocal forces can arise. Specifically, this has recently been shown theoretically in…
Photons deliver their energy and momentum to a point on a material target. It is commonplace to attribute this to particle impact. But since the inflight photon also has a wave nature, we are stuck with the paradox of wave and particle…
We consider a coherent state of light propagating through an ensemble of two-level atoms where all the atoms are initially in their ground state. In ordinary absorption, the transition of atoms to their excited state along with the…
An effective Hamiltonian and equations of motion for treating both the resonant dipole-dipole interaction between two-level atoms and the resonant atom-field interaction are derived, which can suitably be used for studying the influence of…
The insight that optical vortex beams carry orbital angular momentum (OAM), which emerged in Leiden about 30 years ago, has since led to an ever expanding range of applications and follow-up studies. This paper starts with a short personal…
Motivated by a revision of the classical equations of electromagnetism that allow for the inclusion of solitary waves in the solution space, the material collected in these notes examines the consequences of adopting the modified model in…
Photon-photon interactions mediated by an atomic gas can effect efficient polarization exchanges between two beams, leaving the medium exactly in its initial state. In, e.g., hydrogen, the distance required for macroscopic exchange is of…
We present a model describing the transmission of light through atomic media with a vanishing index of refraction. Zero index materials are of particular interest as the infinite phase velocity of light within the material offers the…
The mediated photon-photon interaction due to the resonant Kerr nonlinearity in an inhomogeneously broadened atomic vapor is considered. The time-scale for photon-photon scattering is computed and found to be determined by the inhomogeneous…
We investigate theoretically the mechanical effects of light on atoms trapped by an external potential, whose dipole transition couples to the mode of an optical resonator and is driven by a laser. We derive an analytical expression for the…
The motion of a system of particles under electromagnetic interaction is considered. Under the assumption that the force acting on an electric charge is given by the sum of the electromagnetic fields produced by any other charged particles…
The coherence of light from independent ensembles of elementary atomic emitters plays a paramount role in diverse areas of modern optics. We demonstrate the interference of photons scattered from independent ensembles of warm atoms in…
We report the first experimental demonstration that two light pulses were made motionless and interacted with each other via a medium. The interaction time is, in principle, as long as possible and a considerable efficiency can be achieved…
The light front densities of momentum, angular momentum, and intrinsic pressure are calculated for the photon, both in the free case and at leading order in quantum electrodynamics. In the latter case, we moreover decompose the form factors…
We derive the force of the electromagnetic radiation on material objects by a direct application of the Lorentz law of classical electro-dynamics. The derivation is straightforward in the case of solid metals and solid dielectrics, where…
We report the first observation of mechanical momentum transferred to atoms and molecules upon application of crossed electric and magnetic fields. We identify this momentum as the microscopic analogue of the classical Abraham force.…