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Physical Review Letters

Atom Binding and Reflection by Spatially Inhomogeneous Spontaneous Emission

Yonathan Japha, V. M. Akulin, Gershon Kurizki

Published Apr 27, 1998• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Remarkable quantum effects are predicted for an initially excited two-level wave packet incident on a broadband vacuum-field reservoir with sharp spatial boundaries: (a) reflection of the excited wave packet from the boundary (skin effect); (b) transient three-dimensional binding of the decayed wave packet to the boundary by photons carrying more energy than the incident wave packet. These effects are realizable for cold atoms in cavities where excitation decay is nearly exponential but strongly enhanced.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.80.3739

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Remarkable quantum effects are predicted for an initially excited two-level wave packet incident on a broadband vacuum-field reservoir with sharp spatial boundaries: (a) reflection of the excited wave packet from the boundary (skin effect); (b) transient three-dimensional binding of the decayed wave packet to the boundary by photons carrying more energy than the incident wave packet. These effects are realizable for cold atoms in cavities where excitation decay is nearly exponential but strongly enhanced.
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We present a numerical and analytical study of a multimode Jaynes-Cummings model describing the spontaneous decay of a single atom in a high-Q cavity. The theory of cavity-modified spontaneous emission is discussed in terms of quantities that have clear physical interpretations: the photon wave packet radiated by the atom, its reflection by the cavity boundaries, and its reabsorption by the atom. Multimode corrections to the single-mode Jaynes-Cummings model are calculated. The multimode corrections are formulated in terms of quantities that may be calculated by solving the single-mode equations of motion.
We investigate the effects of a nanophotonic boundary on the spontaneous emission properties of an excited two-level atom in cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) geometry. We show that a boundary provides temporally delayed interference, which can be either constructive or destructive. Consequently, the decay of the atomic excitation can be either increased or greatly inhibited. As a concrete example, we investigate the spontaneous emission process in cavity QED with a terminated line-defect waveguide, and show the rich behavior of the atomic response due to the boundary. We also show that the output photonic wave form is strongly influenced by the boundary.
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