Abstract

There have been many attempts to derive full quantum theory of linear and nonlinear dielectric media. In these the medium is introduced macro-scopically via its susceptibility. Such formulations run into problems when dispersion is present. Attempts have been made to alleviate this situation but they either impose restrictions on bandwidths or introduce spurious extra fields. This kind of approach has been used to model the light propagation in a Kerr medium. Some authors start from a quantum Hamiltonian from whose classical form can be derived the nonlinear Schrodinger equation [1,2]. Others have used either a continuous-time response function [3,4] or a coarse-grained time approximation [5] to model self-phase modulation.

© 1996 Optical Society of America