Physical Review Letters
Nonclassical field dynamics in photonic band structures: Atomic-beam resonant interaction with a spatially periodic field mode
Boris Sherman, Gershon Kurizki, A. Kadyshevitch
Abstract
We consider the quantum electrodynamics of an atom uniformly moving through a single spatially periodic field mode. The shape and periodicity of the field modulation can be designed by an appropriate choice of a defect in a periodic structure that possesses a forbidden spectral band (a ``photonic band gap''). This design of the periodic modulation can improve our control over the evolution and properties (e.g., photon statistics) of nonclassical ``Schr\"odinger-cat'' states of the field, generated by resonant interaction with the atom.