Propagation of quantized light through bounded dispersive and absorptive media

Abstract

Here, we present a new method for description of the propagation of light in bounded media. Our approach is based on the property of photon Green functions to split up into parts corresponding to medium- and vacuum-induced contributions to the field–field fluctuations. Our results apply independently of specific optical properties or geometrical shapes of the matter for arbitrary nonequilibrium situations. As an example, the transmission of an optical field in a squeezed vacuum through a semiconductor slab is discussed and a comparison of the present approach with the input–output formalism is given.