Hopfield dielectric

In quantum mechanics, the Hopfield dielectric is a model of dielectric consisting of quantum harmonic oscillators interacting with the modes of the quantum electromagnetic field. The collective interaction of the charge polarization modes with the vacuum excitations, photons leads to the perturbation of both the linear dispersion relation of photons and constant dispersion of charge waves by the avoided crossing between the two dispersion lines of polaritons. Similar to the acoustic and the optical phonons and far from the resonance one branch is photon-like while the other charge is wave-like. The model was developed by John Hopfield in 1958.

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