Seminar Link: Picoelectrodynamics Theory Network - YouTube
Microscopic polarization and magnetization fields: Towards a “post-modern” theory
The response of solids to incident electromagnetic fields is often heuristically described in terms of macroscopic polarization and magnetization fields. In condensed matter physics, the “modern theory of polarization,” and its extension to magnetization, gives this a new level of rigor for time-independent and uniform applied fields. We review the philosophy and main results of that strategy, and report on a new approach based on introducing microscopic polarization and magnetization fields. This “post-modern” approach can be used to address the response of crystals to electromagnetic fields varying arbitrarily in space and time and connects that respond to aspects of the underlying topology of the band structure. We compare it to earlier work on atoms and molecules, identifying important similarities and differences.
By Prof. John E. Sipe
Dr. John Sipe is a professor in the department of physics at the university of Toronto, and he is a fellow of the American physical Society, the Optical Society of America, and the Royal Society of Canada. He is also a technical advisor at Xanadu Quantum Technologies, a Canadian quantum computing hardware and software company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. His current research is focused on nonlinear quantum optical effects in integrated photonic devices, such as waveguides coupled to resonator structures, understanding the generation and behavior of nonclassical light is central to developing schemes for optical implementation of quantum information processing and computing, the microscopic underpinnings of macroscopic concepts such as magnetization and polarization, extending the “modern theory of polarization and magnetism” into the optical domain via the introduction of microscopic magnetization and polarization fields, and foundational problems in quantum mechanics.