In the present work we generalize the idea of the mix-quantum classical methods, traditionally introduced for electron-nuclear problems, to electron-photon correlated systems. Here we focus on the mean-field Ehrenfest method for light-matter interactions and investigate its performance compared to the exact quantum solution. We apply our novel approach to spontaneous and stimulated emission for atoms and molecules in optical cavities to analyze photonic fields and field correlation. Despite the fact that the free photonic field is harmonic and the coupling to matter is treated linearly, the mean-field results are accurate but not exact. This implies that the true potential driving the photonic motion is in fact not harmonic. To further investigate this, we introduce the exact-factorization approach and therewith time-dependent potential energy-surfaces for electron-photon interaction.

Mixed quantum classical dynamics and surfaces for photons

2019 Spring National Meeting

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