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Physical Review A

Photon number statistics in resonance fluorescence

Richard J. Cook

Published Mar 1, 1981• 117 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Exact closed-form expressions for the probability $p(n)$ that $n$ photons are spontaneously emitted in a given time by a two-level atom in a coherent exciting field are derived using the theory of atomic motion in a traveling wave.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.23.1243

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Physical Review Letters•May 27, 1985•21 citations
Exact closed-form expressions for the probability p(n)p(n)p(n) that nnn photons are spontaneously emitted in a given time by a two-level atom in a coherent exciting field are derived using the theory of atomic motion in a traveling wave.
The theory of photon-number statistics in resonance fluorescence is treated, starting with the general formula for the emission probability of nnn photons during a given time interval TTT. The results fully confirm formerly obtained results by Cook that were based on the theory of atomic motion in a traveling wave. General expressions for the factorial moments are derived and explicit results for the mean and the variance are given. It is explicitly shown that the distribution function tends to a Gaussian when TTT becomes much larger than the natural lifetime of the excited atom. The speed of convergence towards the Gaussian is found to be typically slow, that is, the third normalized central moment (or the skewness) is proportional to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}\frac{1}{2}}$. However, numerical results illustrate that the overall features of the distribution function are already well represented by a Gaussian when TTT is larger than a few natural lifetimes only, at least if the intensity of the exciting field is not too small and its detuning is not too large.
Photon statistics are obtained from exact closed-form solutions for both spontaneous and stimulated coherent emissions by a large number of two-level atoms in a Dicke state. Depending on the initial excitation level of the atoms, three types of photon statistics are obtained for the emitted radiation field. Moments of the photon number of the emitted field are calculated in the case of initial atomic coherent states as well as Dicke states, and in the case of n-photon stimulating pulses as well as coherent stimulating pulses. In the particular case of an initial "superradiant" Dicke state stimulated by a coherent-radiation field, the emitted radiation pulse is also fully coherent. In other cases the photon distributions undergo large fluctuations.
Exact closed form expressions are derived for the photon number distribution functions and the factorial moments in resonance fluorescence from a two-level atom that is driven on or near resonance by a laser beam of finite bandwidth. Derivation procedure that was used by Lenstra in the theory of photon number statistics for limited cases is applied to our generalized problem with help of the theory of resonance fluorescence with excitation of finite bandwidth. All of the results are presented in a fully suitable form for practical analyses of statistical features of resonance fluorescence.
The long-time behavior of the number of photons in a mode of the electromagnetic field is given in closed form in terms of elementary functions when there is initially one (two-level) atom excited in the presence of NNN unexcited identical atoms and MMM field modes. The radiation trapping which occurs with only one mode disappears when the number of modes MMM approaches the total number of atoms in the continuum mode approximation.