Electromagnetic-field quantization in absorbing confined systems

We quantize the electromagnetic field in an absorbing resonant medium with translation symmetry broken along one direction. Tn this case the general polarization of the material system is driven by the field via a nonlocal complex susceptibility. We extend recently developed schemes for field quantization in absorbing dielectric media with local susceptibilities to dielectric systems described by a nonlocal susceptibility. Dissipation inside the medium is described by considering the coupling of polarization quanta of the system with the reservoir oscillators in the usual Langevin approach. The method is applied to the case of a semiconductor quantum well embedded in infinite barriers. Expressions for the electromagnetic field operators are obtained in the different spatial regions and the spatial and frequency dependencies of the vacuum-field fluctuations are calculated. [S1050-2947(99)04908-2].