Journal of Physics D Applied Physics

Interrupted fluorescence, quantum jumps and wavefunction collapse. II

David Thomas Pegg, P. L. Knight

Published Oct 14, 1988• 8 citations

Abstract

For pt.I see Phys. Rev. A, vol.37, p.4303 (1988). The principle of wavefunction collapse by non-detection of photons leads to simple but rigorous expressions for the average dark and bright periods, T D and T B , of intermittent quantum jump fluorescence from a V-configuration three-level atom. Here further consequences of this principle are explored, including: the derivation of some new correlation functions which exhibit the physical characteristics of extended dark and bright periods; the expressions for T D and T B when one transition is driven coherently and the other incoherently; and a general expression for the characteristic time to be sure that a quantum jump has occurred for any type of driving field.

DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/21/10s/036

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