We derive a full quantum optical model of interactions between a dipole and a metal nanoparticle. The electromagnetic field of the nanoparticle is quantized from the time-harmonic solution to the wave equation. We derive an analytical expression for the dipole-field coupling strength and the Purcell factor. The semiclassical theory, derived from the Maxwell-Bloch equations, is compared to the full quantum calculations based on numerical solution of the master equation. The metal nanoparticle-dipole system is found to be in an interesting regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics where dipole decay is dominated by dephasing, but the dipole-field coupling strength is still strong enough to achieve large cooperativity. In the presence of large dephasing, we show that simple semiclassical theory fails to predict the correct scattered field spectrum even in the weak-field limit. We reconcile this discrepancy by applying the random-phase-jump approach to the cavity photon number instead of the dipole operator. We also investigate the quantum fluctuations of the scattered field and show that they are significantly dependent on the dephasing rate.

• Received 30 May 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.043845