| Conventionally, one treats dielectric materials in a type of macroscopic approximation; the medium is characterized by a dielectric constant. Using this approach, one can calculate the change in propagation speed of electromagnetic radiation in a medium without any difficulty. However, when one tries to describe the same processes using a microscopic theory for the dielectric, one is confronted immediately with complicated calculations and apparent paradoxes. In this talk, I will discuss the microscopic origin of the change in wavelength and propagation speed of an electromagnetic wave in a dielectric medium. Moreover, I will describe how a microscopic theory can be used to model the entanglement generated in a dielectric medium when a one-photon pulse is totally absorbed in the medium. |
|