Scattering of coherent light by a dielectric slab

Abstract

We discuss a fully quantum mechanical theory of the scattering of coherent light by a dissipative dispersive slab. The Green function scheme of the electromagnetic field quantization is used as the base formalism to express the scattered field modes in terms of the incident modes. The theory applies to the transmission of light perpendicular to the slab interfaces. The single-mode as well as the continuum-mode propagation are considered in detail. Special attention is paid to the increase of the noise properties when the coherent light is scattered by a lossy dispersive slab. The power spectrum and the average normal order Poynting vector are both evaluated for the forward and backward scattered light pulses. The results are simplified analytically in the narrow band-width approximation.