WOLLEGA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

COLLEGE OF NATURAL
COMPUTATIONAL AND NATURAL
SCIENCE
Electric Dipole Approximation and Rotating Wave
Approximation
By Hundaol Tesfaye
Program:M.sc In Quantum Optics
Advisor:Dr.Misganu Chawaka
ID. No. WU 1400331

January,2023
Nekemte,Ethiopia
 Electric Dipole Approximation and Rotating
Wave Approximation
Hundaol Tesfaye Kenea
January 28, 2023

1 Electric dipole approximation

Suppose that an electromagnetic wave is traveling through an atom, and af-
fecting the electrons .
The general Hamiltonian of an electron in such a wave is given by:

(P̂ − qA)2
Ĥ = + qφ (1)
2m
P̂2 q q 4 A2
= − (A · P̂ + P̂ · A) + + qφ (2)
2m 2m 2m
With charge q = −e, canonical momentum operator P̂ = −ih̄∇, and mag-
netic vector potential A(x, t).
We reduce this by fixing the Coulomb gauge ∇ · A = 0, so that

A · P̂ = P̂ · A : (3)
[A, P̂]ψ = (A · P̂ − P̂ · A)ψ (4)
= −ih̄A · (∇ψ) + ih̄∇ · (Aψ) (5)
= ih̄(∇ · A)ψ = 0 (6)
Where ψ is an arbitrary test function. Assuming A is so small that A2 is
negligible, we split Ĥ as follows, where Ĥ1 can be regarded as a perturbation
to Ĥ0 :

P̂2 q
Ĥ = Ĥ0 + Ĥ1 Ĥ0 ≡ + qφ Ĥ1 ≡ − P̂ · A (7)
2m m

2
In an electromagnetic wave, A is oscillating sinusoidally in time and space:

A(x, t) = A0 sin(k · x − ωt) (8)

Mathematically, it is more convenient to represent this with a complex ex-
ponential, whose real part should be taken at the end of the calculation:

A(x, t) = −iA0 exp(ik · x − iωt) (9)

The corresponding perturbative electric field E is then given by:
∂A
E(x, t) = − = E0 exp(ik · x − iωt) (10)
∂t
Where E0 = ωA0 . Let us restrict ourselves to visible light, whose wavelength
2π/|k| ∼ 10−6 m.
Mean while, an atomic orbital is several Bohr radii ∼ 10−10 m, sok · x is
negligible:

E(x, t) ≈ E0 exp(−iωt) (11)

This is the electric dipole approximation: we ignore all spatial variation of E,
and only consider its temporal oscillation. Also, since we have not used the
word ”photon”, we are implicitly treating the radiation classically, and the
electron quantum-mechanically Next, we want to rewrite Ĥ1 to use the elec-
tric field E instead of the potential A. To do so, we use that P̂ = m dx̂/dt
and evaluate this in the interaction picture:
ih i i 
P̂ = m dx̂/dt = m Ĥ0 , x̂ = m Ĥ0 x̂ − x̂Ĥ0 (12)
h̄ h̄
Taking the off-diagonal inner product with the two-level system’s states |1⟩
and |2⟩ gives:
i D   E
⟨2|P̂|1⟩ = m 2 Ĥ0 x̂ − x̂Ĥ0  1 = miω0 ⟨2|x̂|1⟩ (13)

h̄
Therefore, P̂/m = iω0 x̂, where ω0 ≡ (E2 − E1 ) /h̄ is the resonance of the en-
ergy gap, close to which we assume that A and E are oscillating, i.e. ω ≈ ω0 .
We thus get:
q
Ĥ1 (t) = − P̂ · A = −(−ii)qω0 x̂ · A0 exp(−iωt) (14)
m
≈ −qx̂ · E0 exp(−iωt) = −d̂ · E0 exp(−iωt) (15)
Where d̂ ≡ qx̂ = −ex̂ is the transition dipole moment operator of the elec-
tron, hence the name electric dipole approximation.

3
Finally, we take the real part, yielding:

Ĥ1 (t) = −d̂ · E(t) = −qx̂ · E0 cos(ωt) (16)

If this approximation is too rough, E can always be Taylor-expanded in
(ik · x):
1
 
E(x, t) = E0 1 + (ik · x) + (ik · x)2 + . . . exp(−iωt)
2
(Griffiths & Schroeter, 2018) (17)

Taking the real part then yields the following series of higher-order correction
terms:
1
 
E(x, t) = E0 cos(ωt) + (k · x) sin(ωt) − (k · x)2 cos(ωt) + . . . (18)
2

2 Rotating-wave approximation
The rotating-wave approximation is an approximation used in atom optics
and magnetic resonance. In this approximation, terms in a Hamiltonian that
oscillate rapidly are neglected. This is a valid approximation when the ap-
plied electromagnetic radiation is near resonance with an atomic transition,
and the intensity is low. [1] Explicitly, terms in the Hamiltonians that oscil-
late with frequencies ωL + ω0 are neglected, while terms that oscillate with
frequencies ωL − ω0 are kept, where ωL is the light frequency, and ω0 is a
transition frequency. (Fox, 2002)
The name of the approximation stems from the form of the Hamiltonian
in the interaction picture, as shown below. By switching to this picture the
evolution of an atom due to the corresponding atomic Hamiltonian is ab-
sorbed into the system ket, leaving only the evolution due to the interaction
of the atom with the light field to consider. It is in this picture that the
rapidly oscillating terms mentioned previously can be neglected. Since in
some sense the interaction picture can be thought of as rotating with the
system ket only that part of the electromagnetic wave that approximately
co-rotates is kept; the counter-rotating component is discarded.

4
 Now let we start expressing mathimatically

V̂  iωt 
Ĥ1 (t) = V̂ cos(ωt) = e + e−iωt (19)
2
Where V̂ is some operator, and we assume that ω is fairly close to a reso-
nance frequency ω0 of system that is getting perturbed by Ĥ1 .
As an example, consider a two-level system consisting of states |g⟩ and |e⟩,
with a resonance frequency ω0 = (Ee − Eg ) /h̄. From the amplitude rate
equations, we know that the general superposition state |Ψ⟩ = cg |g⟩ + ce |e⟩
evolves as:
dcg D   E D   E
ih̄ = g Ĥ1 (t) g cg (t) + g Ĥ1 (t) e ce (t)e−iω0 t (20)
dt
dce D   E D   E
ih̄ = e Ĥ1 (t) g cg (t)eiω0 t + e Ĥ1 (t) e ce (t) (21)
  
dt
Typically, V̂ has odd spatial parity, in which case Laporte’s selection rule
reduces this to:
dcg 1 D   E −iω0 t
= g Ĥ1  e ce e (22)
dt ih̄
dce 1 D   E iω0 t
= e Ĥ1  g cg e (23)
dt ih̄
We now insert the general Ĥ1 defined above, and define Veg ≡ ⟨e|V̂ |g⟩ to get:

dcg V∗  
= eg ei(ω−ω0 )t + e−i(ω+ω0 )t ce (24)
dt i2h̄
dce Veg  i(ω+ω0 )t 
= e + e−i(ω−ω0 )t cg (25)
dt i2h̄
At last, here we make the rotating wave approximation: since ω is assumed
to be close to ω0 , we argue that ω + ω0 is so much larger than ω − ω0 that
those oscillations turn out negligible if the system is observed over a reason-
able time interval.
Specifically, since both exponentials have the same weight, the fast (ω + ω0 )
oscillations have a tiny amplitude compared to the slow (ω − ω0 ) ones. Fur-
thermore, since they average out to zero over most realistic time intervals,
the fast terms can be dropped, leaving:

ei(ω−ω0 )t + e−i(ω+ω0 )t ≈ ei(ω−ω0 )t (26)

ei(ω+ω0 )t + e−i(ω−ω0 )t ≈ e−i(ω−ω0 )t (27)

5
Such that our example set of equations can be approximated as shown below,
and its analysis can continue (see Rabi oscillation for more):

dcg V∗
= eg ce ei(ω−ω0 )t (28)
dt i2h̄
dce Veg −i(ω−ω0 )t
= cg e (29)
dt i2h̄
This approximation’s name is a bit confusing: the idea is that going from
the Schrödinger to the interaction picture has the effect of removing the ex-
ponentials of ω0 from the above equations, i.e. multiplying them by eiω0 t and
e−iω0 t respectively, which can be regarded as a rotation.
Relative to this rotation, when we split the wave cos(ωt) into two expo-
nentials, one co-rotates, and the other counter-rotates. We keep only the
co-rotating waves, hence the name (?, ?).
The rotating wave approximation is usually used in the context of the two-
level quantum system for light-matter interactions, as in the above example.
However, it is not specific to that case, and it more generally refers to any
approximation where fast-oscillating terms are neglected.

3 Draw the graph of below equation

.

4ϵ2
⟨â †out âout ⟩ = +N (30)
κ
Solution
When our κ is constant:

6
 figure 1 graph of out put when κisconstant

When our N is constant:

Figure 2 graph of output when N is constant

The syntax Matlab for the above graph is;

clear all
close all

7
clc
κ = [0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8]
y = [363, 183, 123, 93, 75, 63, 54, 43, 48]
plot[κ, y]
clc
N = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
y = [121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128]
plot[N, y]
W hereyismeanphotonnumberof output

References
Fox, M. (2002). Optical properties of solids. American Association of Physics
Teachers.
Griffiths, D. J., & Schroeter, D. F. (2018). Introduction to quantum mechan-
ics. Cambridge university press.