Kramers–Kronig Relation for Attenuated Total Reflection from a Metal–Dielectric Interface Where Surface Plasmon Polaritons Are Excited

The applicability of the Kramers–Kronig relation for attenuated total reflection (ATR) from a metal–dielectric interface that can excite surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) is theoretically investigated. The plasmon-induced attenuation of reflected light can be taken as the resonant absorption of light through a virtual absorptive medium. The optical phase shift of light reflected from the SPP-generating interface is calculated using the KK relation, for which the spectral dependence of ATR is used at around the plasmonic resonance. The KK relation-calculated phase shift shows good agreement with that directly obtained from the reflection coefficient, calculated by a field transfer matrix formula at around the resonance. This indicates that physical causality also produces the spectral dependence of the phase of the leakage field radiated by surface plasmons that would interfere with the reflected part of light incident to the interface. This is analogous with optical dispersion in an absorptive medium where the phase of the secondary field induced by a medium polarization, which interferes with a polarization-stimulating incident field, has a spectral dependence that stems from physical causality.

On the Casimir energy of the electromagnetic field in the dispersive and absorptive medium

The microscopic theory of the Casimir effect in the dielectric is studied in the framework when absorption is realized via a reservoir modeled by a set of oscillators with continuously distributed frequencies with the aim to see if the effects depend on the form of interaction with the reservoir. A simple case of the one-dimensional dielectric between two metallic plates is considered. Two possible models are investigated, the direct interaction of the electromagnetic field with the reservoir and indirect interaction via an intermediate oscillator imitating the atom. It is found that with the same dielectric constant the Casimir effect is different in these two cases, which implies that in the second model it cannot be entirely expressed via the dielectric constant as in the well-known Lifshitz formula.