UC San Diego

We consider optical spectroscopy of molecular junctions from the quantum transport perspective when radiation field is quantized and optical response of the system is simulated as photon flux. Using exact expressions for photon and electronic fluxes derived within the nonequilibrium Green function (NEGF) methodology and utilizing fourth order diagrammatic perturbation theory (PT) in molecular coupling to radiation field, we perform simulations employing realistic parameters. Results of the simulations are compared to the bare PT which is usually employed in studies on nonlinear optical spectroscopy to classify optical processes. We show that the bare PT violates conservation laws, while flux conserving NEGF formulation mixes optical processes.