Mode expansions in the quantum electrodynamics of photonic media with disorder

We address two issues in the quantum electrodynamical description of photonic media with some disorder, neglecting material dispersion. When choosing a gauge in which the static potential vanishes, the normal modes of the medium with disorder satisfy another transversality condition than the modes of the ideal medium.

Our first result is an integral equation for optical modes such that all perturbation-theory solutions automatically satisfy the desired transversality condition. Secondly, when expanding the vector potential for the medium with disorder in terms of the normal modes of the ideal structure, we find the gauge transformation that makes the static potential zero, thereby generalizing work by Glauber and Lewenstein [Phys.

Rev. A 43, 467 (1991)]. Our results are relevant for the quantum optics of disordered photonic crystals.