Back-reaction effects of quantum vacuum in cavity quantum electrodynamics

An optical system is theoretically studied in which the back reaction of quantum vacuum manifests itself as a sizable suppression of the absorption by a three-level emitter embedded in an optical cavity. Within this work, an original theoretical model including the nonrotating-wave terms of the light-matter interaction Hamiltonian is developed to describe the conversion of zero-point fluctuations into observable radiation, i.e. the analog of a dynamical Casimir emission, as well as the back reaction of the quantum vacuum onto the emitter. Drawing an analogy with the conventional dynamical Casimir effect, these peaks can be interpreted as due to the optical analog of the mechanical friction force exerted by the quantum vacuum onto a nonuniformly accelerated mirror.