Several quantum optics problems in which spontaneous emission and/or vacuum fluctuations play an important role are discussed. These include the spontaneous decay of an atom and the damping of the field in a cavity (both in the presence of ordinary and `squeezed' vacuum), the correlated (spontaneous) emission laser or CEL, and quantum beats in V- and Λ-type three-level atoms.
Several quantum optics problems in which spontaneous emission and/or vacuum fluctuations play an important role are discussed. These include the spontaneous decay of an atom and the damping of the field in a cavity (both in the presence of ordinary and `squeezed' vacuum), the correlated (spontaneous) emission laser or CEL, and quantum beats in V- and Λ-type three-level atoms.
The earliest studies on the subject of spontaneous emission from an excited atom via interaction with the vacuum modes of the radiation field go back to the early days of quantum mechanics. In view of the fundamental nature of the vacuum fluctuations, it was long thought that spontaneous emission could not be controlled. However, in 1946 Purcell noted that the spontaneous emission rate of the atom inside a resonant cavity can be substantially enhanced (or suppressed) over its free-space value. This is due to the dramatic change of the density of modes of the vacuum field in a cavity. The enhancement and suppression of spontaneous emission in resonant and off-resonant cavities were observed experimentally in the 1980s. It was also realized in the 1950s and 1960s that coherent driving fields can dramatically change the characteristics of the spontaneous emission. The Autler-Townes doublet and Mollow three-peak spectrum are the examples of such behavior. A dramatic narrowing of the spectral peaks were discovered in driven multilevel atomic systems in the early 1990s. The role of atomic coherence in quenching spontaneous emission fluctuations in the context of laser physics was studied in the 1980s, via the correlated spontaneous emission laser (CEL). In this case atomic coherence results in the correlation of two spontaneous emission noise events so that the spontaneous emission quantum noise is eliminated in the relative linewidth. Later, it was “discovered” that the spontaneous emission can be suppressed through quantum interference between decay channels. Properly stated, this was rediscovered since it was first discovered and explained by Lamb in the 1940s. If the dipoles of two transitions from one upper level to two lower levels are parallel, the spontaneous emission in an ordinary vacuum can be cancelled. In a nonuniform vacuum, e.g., a cavity, the quenching of spontaneous emission can be achieved, even for the orthogonal dipoles.
We investigate a cavity mode that interacts with a three-level atom in an open cavity that is coupled to a vacuum reservoir and is driven by coherent light. In our analysis, the interaction of the three-level atom with the external vacuum reservoir is taken into account and the noise operators of the vacuum reservoir are placed in normal order. While the spontaneous emission rate fluctuates as [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text], the cavity damping constant and stimulated emission decay constant, both set to 0.8, govern the system dynamics. Both the plus and negative components of the cavity light display quadrature squeezing. For coherent driving strengths [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] at [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] at [Formula: see text], the plus quadrature exhibits [Formula: see text] squeezing below the vacuum level, indicating that increasing the coherent drive can compensate for the decoherence introduced by spontaneous emission. Moreover, for [Formula: see text], the minus quadrature achieves [Formula: see text] squeezing. At high driving strengths, the squeezing in both quadratures becomes independent of spontaneous emission. In the absence of spontaneous emission, the mean photon number increases, and the photon number distribution shows a higher probability for even photon numbers than for odd ones, with the overall distribution decreasing as the photon number increases.
In this paper we have studied the statistical and squeezing properties of the cavity light generated by a three-level laser. In this quantum optical system, N three-level atoms available in an open cavity, coupled to a two-mode vacuum reservoir, are pumped to the top level by means of electron bombardment at constant rate. We have considered the case in which the three-level atoms and the cavity modes interact with the two-mode vacuum reservoir. We have carried out our analysis by putting the noise operators associated with the vacuum reservoir in normal order. Applying the solutions of the equations of evolution for the expectation values of the atomic operators and the quantum Langevin equations for the cavity mode operators, we have calculated the mean and variance of the photon number as well as the quadrature squeezing for the cavity light. In addition, we have shown that the presence of the spontaneous emission process leads to a decrease in the mean and variance of the photon number. We have observed that the two-mode cavity light is in a squeezed state and the squeezing occurs in the minus quadrature. The maximum quadrature squeezing of the light generated by the laser, operating far below threshold, is found to be 50% below the vacuum-state level. We have also established that the mean photon number in the presence of spontaneous emission is less than the absence of spontaneous emission.
A quantum theory of two-photon correlated-spontaneous-emission lasers (CEL's) is developed, starting from the exact atom-field interaction Hamiltonian for cascade three-level atoms interacting with a single-mode radiation field. We consider the situation where the active atoms are prepared initially in a coherent superposition of three atomic levels and derive a master equation for the field-density operator by using a quantum theory for coherently pumped lasers. The master equation is transformed into a Fokker-Planck equation for the antinormal-ordering Q function. The drift coefficients of the Fokker-Planck equation enable us to study the steady-state operation of the two-photon CEL's analytically. We have studied both resonant two-photon CEL for which there is no threshold, and off-resonant two-photon CEL for which there exists a threshold. In both cases the initial atomic coherences provide phase locking, and squeezing in the phase quadrature of the field is found. The off-resonant two-photon CEL can build up from a vacuum when its linear gain is larger than the cavity loss (even without population inversion). Maximum squeezing is found in the no-population-inversion region with the laser intensities far below saturation in both cases, which are more than 90% for the resonant two-photon CEL and nearly 50% for the off-resonant one. Approximate steady-state Q functions are obtained for the resonant two-photon CEL and, in certain circumstances, for the off-resonant one.
Vacuum fluctuations play a central role in spontaneous emission. Recently, it has been suggested that these fluctuations could also be fundamental in the absorption dynamics, breaking the superposition inherent to the linear quantum evolution. We analyze the consistency of that proposal with previous results in double spontaneous emission. Moreover, for the case of single absorption by two atoms, we present a test based on the time dependence of the subsequent spontaneous emission patterns, which can experimentally settle the question. This test is more viable than the original proposal, built on the Casimir effect. Our approach also allows for the comparison between the time scales of vacuum fluctuations as a disentangling mechanism and an emission trigger.
The analysis of quantum properties of the cavity light produced by a coherently driven nondegenerate three-level laser possessing an open cavity and coupled to a two-mode vacuum reservoir is presented. The normal ordering of noise operators associated with the vacuum reservoir is considered. Applying the solutions of the equations of evolution for the expectation values of the atomic operators and the quantum Langevin equations for the cavity mode operators, the squeezing properties, entanglement amplification, and the normalized second-order correlation function of the cavity radiation are described. The three-level laser generates squeezed light under certain conditions, with maximum intracavity squeezing being 50% below the vacuum-state level. Moreover, it is found that the presence of spontaneous emission increases the quadrature squeezing and entanglement and decreses the mean photon number of the two-mode cavity radiation.