Quantum theory of surface lattice resonances

Abstract: The collective interactions of nanoparticles arranged in periodic structures give rise to high-$Q$ in-plane diffractive modes known as surface lattice resonances (SLRs). While these resonances and their broader implications have been extensively studied within the framework of classical electrodynamics and linear response theory, a quantum optical theory capable of describing the dynamics of these structures, especially in the presence of material nonlinearities, beyond the use of \textit{ad hoc} few-mode approximations is largely missing. To this end, we consider here a lattice of metallic nanoparticles coupled to the background electromagnetic field and derive the quantum input-output relations within the electric dipole approximation. As a first application, we discuss coupling of the nanoparticle array to an external array of emitters and illustrate how the formalism can be extended to molecular optomechanics. Specifically, we show how the high $Q$-factors provided by SLRs can facilitate coupling between the nanoparticle array and collective vibrational modes. Finally, we examine a scenario in which the metallic nanoparticles themselves are replaced with saturable excitonic emitters, illustrating how the nonlinearity of the emitters can be used to switch the SLR condition between different electronic transitions. Our work provides a seamless framework to rigorously model SLR phenomena with quantum emitters without resorting to phenomenological treatments of either the electromagnetic environment or the material degrees of freedom.