Editors' Choice—A Quantum Electrodynamics Formulation of Energy Transfer between Two Optically Active Ions

Abstract

We have visited the nonradiative electron transfer process between optically active ions in luminescent materials. In contrast to the earlier formulations using multipolar expansion of instantaneous coulomb interaction between electrons, we have utilized a quantum electrodynamics (QED) approach to study the process of energy transfer from an excited ion to another. Such energy transfers occur in both sensitized luminescence and cross relaxations in the excited state. We have here investigated the nonradiative energy transfer processes specifically mediated by electric dipole moment-magnetic dipole moment and magnetic electric dipole moment-magnetic dipole moment interactions using a Feynman diagrammatic method. We have shown how experimentally relevant transfer rates could be obtained using a QED formulation involving discrete energy levels and spectral line shape function for emission and absorption profiles of interactive ions. Additional features of the dependence of the energy transfer rates on the interionic distance arising from retarded interaction potential have been pointed out.