Vacuum Fluctuations in Optical Metamaterials Containing Nonlinear Dielectrics

Abstract

We investigated the influence of zero-point fluctuations (vacuum fluctuations, optical quantum noise) to the optical response of electromagnetic metamaterials containing dielectrics with third-order Kerr-like nonlinearity. We determined the zero-point noise and calculated it for different analytes, including those used in forensic analysis and organic pollutants. The zero-point noise level is highest for shortest-wavelength plasmons and decreases towards long-range plasmons. It may be tailored through a convenient design of the metamaterial structure. Since noise spectral power is proportional to the nonlinearity of the analyte species present, we considered the possibility to use zero-point noise as an auxiliary tool for identification of targeted nonlinear samples. We believe that our investigation could be of importance in homeland defence, forensics, biomedicine, etc.