The study, featured in 'Physical Review Letters', delves deeply into the behavior of photons - elementary particles of light - and examines their emission by atoms or molecules, influenced by the surrounding environment. The interactions of photons with their emitters and how this energy propagates into the 'far field' are detailed within this research, which captures the essence of these complex processes.
The challenge quantum physicists have faced for years is the infinite number of ways light can exist and propagate in its environment, making such interactions difficult to model. The Birmingham team addressed this by classifying these myriad possibilities into distinct sets, enabling the creation of a model that effectively illustrates photon interactions.
Dr. Benjamin Yuen, lead author from the School of Physics at the University, remarked, "Our calculations enabled us to convert a seemingly insolvable problem into something that can be computed. And, almost as a bi-product of the model, we were able to produce this image of a photon, something that hasn't been seen before in physics."
This advancement holds significant potential for future quantum and material science innovations. Precise knowledge of photon behavior can aid in designing advanced nanophotonic technologies, which could transform secure communications, pathogen detection, and even molecular-level chemical reactions.
Co-author Professor Angela Demetriadou highlighted the significance of environmental factors: "The geometry and optical properties of the environment have profound consequences for how photons are emitted, including defining the photon's shape, color, and even its probability of existing."
Dr. Yuen further noted, "This work helps us to increase our understanding of the energy exchange between light and matter, and secondly to better understand how light radiates into its nearby and distant surroundings. Lots of this information had previously been thought of as just 'noise' - but there's so much information within it that we can now make sense of, and make use of. By understanding this, we set the foundations to be able to engineer light-matter interactions for future applications, such as better sensors, improved photovoltaic energy cells, or quantum computing."