Frequency shift and decay time of radiation in a partially open cavity

Maciej Janowicz

M. D. Levenson, Barbara A. Paldus, Thomas G. Spence +4 more

When the frequency of light coupled into a cavity is suddenly shifted, the radiation emanating from the input port of the previously excited cavity can beat with the reflection of the frequency-shifted input on the surface of a photodetector. When the beat frequency is stable, the time decay of the resulting optical heterodyne signal can be used to measure intracavity absorption spectra with near quantum-limited sensitivity.

Jonathan P. Dowling, Marlan O. Scully, F. De Martini

А. Н. Ораевский

Dmitry O. Krimer, Matthias Liertzer, Stefan Rotter +1 more

We study the non-Markovian quantum dynamics of an emitter inside an open multimode cavity, focusing on the case where the emitter is resonant with high-frequency cavity modes. Based on a Green's-function technique suited for open photonic structures, we study the crossovers between three distinct regimes as the coupling strength is gradually increased: (i) overdamped decay with a time scale given by the Purcell modified decay rate, (ii) underdamped oscillations with a time scale given by the effective vacuum Rabi frequency, and (iii) pulsed revivals. The final multimode strong-coupling regime (iii) gives rise to quantum revivals of the atomic inversion on a time scale associated with the cavity round-trip time. We show that the crucial parameter to capture the crossovers between these regimes is the nonlinear Lamb shift, accounted for exactly in our formalism.

Astrid Lambrecht, Marc-Thierry Jaekel, Serge Reynaud