Physical Review A

Suppression of fluorescence in a lossless cavity

Paul M. Alsing, David A. Cardimona, H. J. Carmichael

Published Feb 1, 1992• 84 citations

Abstract

In this paper we theoretically investigate the behavior of a two-level atom in a lossless cavity driven by an external field. Using classical electrodynamics to describe the external field while quantizing the cavity field, we find that the cavity field is excited to a coherent state whose amplitude is equal to that of the external field, but shifted 180\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} in phase. This results in the disappearance of the atomic resonance fluorescence (i.e., the atom stops interacting with the fields). When we quantize the external field the effect persists. A fully quantized dressed-state approach provides some helpful insight and a nice analogy to another problem in which the resonance fluorescence vanishes.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.45.1793

Related papers

Interference effects in a three-level atom in a cavity beyond the weak-field approximation

David A. Cardimona, Paul M. Alsing, Henry Mozer +1 more

We investigate quantum interference and classical-interference effects when three-level atoms in the ``$\ensuremath{\Lambda}$'' or ``V'' configuration interact with both a cavity-field mode and an external driving field mode. We describe electromagnetically induced transparency ($\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ configuration), as well as a ``field-induced transparency'' (V configuration), and we go beyond the weak cavity-field studies of previous papers by utilizing a Heisenberg-picture density matrix approach. We find that under certain circumstances the cavity field evolves to be equal in magnitude to, but $180\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$ out of phase with, the external pump field when the pump-field frequency equals the cavity frequency, a surprising effect found in two-level atoms in a cavity excited by an external pump field that persists in three-level atoms. The better the cavity, the quicker this buildup occurs. When the cavity field reaches this ``out-of-phase'' condition, the resonance fluorescence from the atom in the cavity goes to zero. This is a purely classical-interference effect between the two out-of-phase fields, with the resonance fluorescence going to zero at the same time as the two excited state populations go to zero. This is quite different from the quantum interference that occurs under the right circumstances when the state populations are coherently driven into a linear combination that is decoupled from any applied field and population is trapped in the excited states (``coherent population trapping''). When the cavity frequency is tuned to the frequency at which quantum interference would occur, the two interference effects compete with each other. The cavity field begins to evolve toward the $180\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$ out-of-phase condition, thereby approaching a classical destructive interference condition with the pump field. Then at some point before 100% classical interference occurs, depending on the cavity damping rate and atom/cavity coupling strength, the atom builds up its coherence between state populations to produce the quantum interference effect. At that point, the atom becomes transparent and resonance fluorescence disappears, including fluorescence into the cavity, thereby causing the cavity field to die away.

Physical Review AJun 11, 200917 citations

Field cancellation by a two-level atom in a multimode cavity driven by a time-dependent field

David A. Cardimona, Karl W. Koch, Paul M. Alsing

We investigate the behavior of a two-level atom in a multimode cavity driven from the side by a time-dependent field. The time-dependent fields we have looked at are (i) pure amplitude modulated, (ii) pure frequency modulated, (iii) single sideband, and (iv) general three-mode fields. Each of these fields results in two (for the single-sideband case) or three modes separated by the modulation frequency. We find that when the driving field mode spacing is a multiple of the cavity mode spacing, the multimode cavity field created by the driven two-level atom becomes exactly 180\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} out of phase with the external driving field in steady state. This results in a zero net field at the position of the atom and, hence, the atom remains unexcited regardless of the strength of the external driving field. This is very reminiscent of the field-induced transparency effect as described by Cardimona et al. [J. Phys. B 15, 55 (1982)] in which the various dipole transitions of a multilevel atom dressed by a coherent field are driven 180\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} out of phase with each other, producing a zero net fluorescence. We also show that, in the limit of an infinite cavity, the multimode equations reduce to the neoclassical equations of Stroud and Jaynes [Phys. Rev. A 1, 106 (1970)].

Physical Review AJan 1, 19972 citations

Dispersive atomic evolution in a dissipative-driven cavity

S. M. Chumakov, A. B. Klimov, C. Saavedra

We study the dynamics of a collection of two-level atoms interacting with a single mode of a quantized field in a dissipative cavity in the dispersive regime. The quantized mode is driven by a classical driving field. The steady-state density matrix is obtained. The influence of the driving field on the quantized driven field and on atomic properties in both the dissipative and the lossless cases is studied. The atomic decoherence time in the dissipative-driven case is obtained. We show that the external driving field strongly suppresses the atomic coherence (in comparison with the dissipative cavity without the driving field).

Physical Review AFeb 16, 200019 citations

Dressed Atom Fields and Dressed States in Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics

Aiyin Y. Liu, Weng Cho Chew

The fully quantized problem of a dipole atom coupled to transverse electric fields is solved for both simple harmonic and two-level atoms in a general lossless electromagnetic environment. The method employed is a direct factorization of the Hamiltonian in terms of coupled excitations of atom and fields. Time evolution of the system is considered with emphasis on the effect of an atom-photon bound state. The rectangular waveguide is used as an example to illustrate the predicted behavior.

IEEE journal on multiscale and multiphysics computational techniquesJan 1, 201713 citations

Collective-resonance fluorescence in an ideal cavity

H. M. Castro-Beltrán, J. J. Sánchez-Mondragón, S. M. Chumakov

We study cooperative properties of the emission spectrum of A two-level atoms interacting with a quantized field in a lossless cavity. We show, in a unified treatment, the system anharmonicity, the fine structure, and size of the spectral bands. Further, we show that for an initially inverted atomic system and a thermal cavity field the atomic cooperativity allows the merging of well-defined sidebands, absent in the single-atom case. Thus the cooperativity reduces the destructive effect of the large dispersion of the blackbody photon distribution. For an increasing number of atoms, the central band is split into a doublet. The dip in the doublet is filled when the cavity field is very strong. Also, the extra sidebands have smaller amplitudes than the time-dependent contributions to the spectrum. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

Physical Review AJun 1, 199612 citations

Atomic population inversion and enhancement of resonance fluorescence in a cavity

Tran Quang, Helen S. Freedhoff

We investigate properties of a two-level atom coupled to a single cavity mode, and driven by a strong, in general off-resonance, external field. The cavity field is tuned to resonance with a Mollow sideband. We show that the steady-state atomic population may be highly (nearly totally) inverted, a phenomenon forbidden in semiclassical theory, and that a strong enhancement of the resonance fluorescence results. This system is suggested as an alternative approach to create the atomic inversion necessary for laser or maser generation without using additional atomic levels. We also investigate properties of the cavity field, derive an analytical expression for the photon number distribution in the good cavity or strong-coupling limit, and discuss the conditions under which this system acts as a single-atom dressed-state laser.

Physical Review AMar 1, 199349 citations