ELECTROMAGNETIC-FIELD QUANTIZATION IN ABSORBING DIELECTRICS .2.

A quantization scheme for the electromagnetic field in absorbing diele ctrics developed previously is extended to cover more complicated arra ngements of dielectric media and to investigate various limiting cases of the general formalism. The limiting cases include media that have vanishing imaginary parts in their dielectric functions, because eithe r the refractive index or the extinction coefficient vanishes. The fur ther limit of a unit real dielectric function establishes the connecti on of the formalism with the well-known quantized field expressions in free space. Detailed calculations are presented for the quantization in the system of two different absorbing dielectrics in contact at a p lane interface and for the cavity formed in the free space between two separated absorbing dielectrics. The forms of the field operators are determined for both systems, the canonical commutation relations are verified, and the spectra of the vacuum field fluctuations are calcula ted and illustrated. The calculations are restricted throughout to fie lds that propagate perpendicular to the dielectric interfaces.