PHOTON PHYSICS: FROM WAVE MECHANICS TO QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS

摘要

When rewritten in an appropriate manner, the microscopic Maxwell-Lorentz equations appear as a wave-mechanical theory for photons, and their quantum physical interaction with matter. A natural extension leads from photon wave mechanics to quantum electrodynamics (QED). In its modern formulation photon wave mechanics has given us valuable new insight in subjects such as spatial photon localization, near-field photon dynamics, transverse photon mass, photon eikonal theory, photon tunneling, and rim-zone electrodynamics. The present review is based on my plenary lecture at the SPIE-Europe 2009 Optics and Optoelectronics International Symposium in Prague.