Modified dipole-dipole interactions in the presence of a nanophotonic waveguide

Abstract

When an emitter ensemble interacts with the electromagnetic field, dipole-dipole interactions are induced between the emitters. The magnitude and shape of these interactions are fully determined by the specific form of the electromagnetic field modes. If the emitters are placed in the vicinity of a nanophotonic waveguide, such as a cylindrical nanofiber, the complex functional form of these modes makes the analytical evaluation of the dipole-dipole interaction cumbersome and numerically costly. In this work, we provide a full detailed description of how to successfully calculate these interactions, outlining a method that can be easily extended to other environments and boundary conditions. Such exact evaluation is of importance as, due to the collective character of the interactions and dissipation in this kind of systems, any small modification of the interactions may lead to dramatic changes in experimental observables, particularly as the number of emitters increases. We illustrate this by calculating the transmission signal of the light guided by a cylindrical nanofiber in the presence of a nearby chain of emitters.