Related papers: Momentum exchange between light and a single atom:…
We have recently shown that the electromagnetic field in a medium is made of mass-polariton (MP) quasiparticles, which are quantized coupled states of the field and an atomic mass density wave (MDW) [Phys. Rev. A 95, 063850 (2017)]. In this…
A systematic shift of the photon recoil due to the index of refraction of a dilute gas of atoms has been observed. The recoil frequency was determined with a two-pulse light grating interferometer using near-resonant laser light. The…
We determine the invariant expression of the force density that the electromagnetic field exerts on dipolar matter and construct the non-symmetric energy-momentum tensor of the electromagnetic field in matter which is consistent with that…
We study theoretically the scattering of light by an ensemble of $N$ resonant atoms in a sub-wavelength volume. We consider the low intensity regime so that each atom responds linearly to the field. While $N$ non-interacting atoms would…
The recoil of atoms in dense ensembles during light matter interactions is studied using quantized vibrational states for the atomic motion. The recoil resulting from the forces due to the near-field collective dipole interactions and…
In this article we theoretically study the phase shift a single atom imprints onto a coherent state light beam in free space. The calculations are performed in a semiclassical framework. The key parameters governing the interaction and thus…
We experimentally study resonant light scattering by a one-dimensional randomly filled chain of cold two-level atoms. By a local measurement of the light scattered along the chain, we observe constructive interferences in light-induced…
For nearly a decade, it has been a mystery why the small average number of photons absorbed per atom from an ultrashort laser pulse is able to induce a strong magnetization within a few hundred femtoseconds. Here we resolve this mystery by…
A general expression is derived for the momentum diffusion constant of a small polarizable particle in blackbody radiation, and is shown to be closely related to the long-wavelength collisional decoherence rate for such a particle in a…
We discuss the scattering of a light pulse by a single atom in free space using a purely semi-classical framework. The atom is treated as a linear elastic scatterer allowing to treat each spectral component of the incident pulse separately.…
When a strong laser pulse induces the ionization of an atom, momentum conservation dictates that the absorbed photons transfer their momentum $p_{\gamma}=E_{\gamma}/c$ to the electron and its parent ion. Even after 30 years of studying…
We study the motion of a test particle in a stationary, axially and reflection symmetric spacetime of a central compact object, as affected by interaction with a test radiation field of the same symmetries. Considering the radiation flux…
We present an elementary discussion of the momentum transferred to a conducting sheet by an electromagnetic wave propagating in a polarizable medium. We show that conservation of momentum is consistent with Minkowski's expression for the…
We investigate one of the consequences of the three competing models describing the mechanical interaction of light with a dielectric medium. According to both the Abraham and Minkowski models the time-averaged force density is zero inside…
In the mass-polariton (MP) theory of light formulated by us recently [Phys. Rev. A 95, 063850 (2017)], light in a medium is described as a coupled state of the field and matter. The key result of the MP theory is that the optical force of…
The force exerted on a material by an incident beam of light is dependent upon the material's velocity in the laboratory frame of reference. This velocity dependence is known to be diffcult to measure, as it is proportional to the incident…
When polarized light is absorbed by an atom, the excited atomic system carries information about the initial polarization of light. For the light that carries an orbital angular momentum, or the twisted light, the polarization states are…
The work performed by a classical electromagnetic field on a quantum dipole is well known in quantum optics. The absorbed power linearly depends on the time derivative of the average dipole moment, in that case. The following problem,…
The interaction between free electrons and optical modes underlies a variety of quantum and nanoscale light-matter phenomena, yet the associated momentum exchange with the sample largely remained overlooked. Here, we experimentally…
Different theoretical and experimental aspects of electromagnetic phenomena in media is reviewed. The 100 year old Minkowski theory is in agreement with most experiments, but has theoretical problems related to its implied validity in all…