An analytic expression for the quasiprobability distributions of Cahill and Glauber [Phys. Rev. 177, 1882 (1969)] of the Jaynes-Cummings model is derived in the rotating-wave approximation for a vanishing thermal photon number. First the equations of motion for the density operator are transformed to a system of partial differential equations for the quasiprobability distributions. By a suitable expansion of these distributions into a Fourier series and into Laguerre functions a system of ordinary tridiagonally coupled differential equations for the expansion coefficients is obtained. By an appropriate choice of a scaling parameter and by a proper elimination procedure it is shown that the coefficients are only coupled to coefficients with the same index and to coefficients with the next upper index. Because of this coupling the Laplace transform can be given analytically. By using a partial fraction decomposition the eigenvalues and eigenvectors can be obtained in closed forms, thus leading to a simple analytic solution for the long-time behavior of the quasiprobability distributions. Finally it is shown that the method can also be applied if additional atomic damping is present.
An analytic expression for the quasiprobability distributions of Cahill and Glauber [Phys. Rev. 177, 1882 (1969)] of the Jaynes-Cummings model is derived in the rotating-wave approximation for a vanishing thermal photon number. First the equations of motion for the density operator are transformed to a system of partial differential equations for the quasiprobability distributions. By a suitable expansion of these distributions into a Fourier series and into Laguerre functions a system of ordinary tridiagonally coupled differential equations for the expansion coefficients is obtained. By an appropriate choice of a scaling parameter and by a proper elimination procedure it is shown that the coefficients are only coupled to coefficients with the same index and to coefficients with the next upper index. Because of this coupling the Laplace transform can be given analytically. By using a partial fraction decomposition the eigenvalues and eigenvectors can be obtained in closed forms, thus leading to a simple analytic solution for the long-time behavior of the quasiprobability distributions. Finally it is shown that the method can also be applied if additional atomic damping is present.
An analytic expression for the inversion and intensity of the Jaynes-Cummings model with cavity damping is derived in the rotating-wave approximation for vanishing thermal photon numbers. Using the s-parametrized quasiprobability distributions of Cahill and Glauber [Phys. Rev. 177, 1882 (1969)], the equation of motion for the density operator is transformed into c-number equations for the quasiprobability functions. By a suitable expansion into a Fourier series and into Laguerre functions, we obtain ordinary tridiagonal coupled differential equations for the expansion coefficients. By an appropriate choice of a scaling parameter and by a proper elimination procedure, it is shown that the coefficients that determine the inversion and the mean intensity are only coupled to coefficients with the same index and to coefficients with the next upper index. Because of this coupling the Laplace transform can be given analytically. Furthermore, it is shown that the eigenvalues and eigenvectors can also be calculated, thus leading to an analytic solution for the inversion of the Jaynes-Cummings model.
The Jaynes-Cummings model with cavity damping is investigated in the rotated-wave approximation. First we introduce six appropriate combinations of the matrix elements of the density operator, which are still operators with respect to the light field. With the help of the s-parametrized quasiprobability distributions of Cahill and Glauber [Phys. Rev. 177, 1882 (1969)] the equations of motion for the density operator transform to six coupled partial-differential equations. By expanding the quasiprobability distributions into two suitable sets, we obtain six tridiagonally coupled differential equations for the expansion coefficients, which are solved by a Runge-Kutta method. Starting with an initial coherent state of the cavity field and the atom in its upper state, we find that the initially one-peak quasiprobability function splits into two peaked functions counterrotating in the complex plane and, depending on the damping constant, spiraling into the origin. Revivals of the inversion oscillation are found for those times, when the two peaks collide. The time dependence of the inversion and the intensity as well as some special distributions of interest are also discussed.
A cavity-damped Jaynes-Cummings model with a Kerr-like medium filling the cavity is investigated in the rotating-wave approximation. We introduce six operators with respect to the light field whose equations of motion are transformed to six coupled partial differential equations using the s-parametrized quasiprobability distributions of Cahill and Glauber [Phys. Rev. 177, 1882 (1969)]. Equations of motion for expansion coefficients of the distribution functions are solved by a Runge-Kutta procedure for vector tridiagonal relations. Starting with an initial coherent state for the cavity field and the atom in its upper state, we find that revivals of the atomic inversion are more pronounced for a given damping constant compared to the case of no Kerr medium. Also, quadrature squeezing is less affected by weak cavity damping and thermal noise compared to the standard Jaynes-Cummings model. The effect of damping on interesting non-Gaussian structures is also discussed.
Operating in Laplace language and making use of a representation based on photon-number states, we find the exact solution for the density operator that belongs to the Jaynes-Cummings model with cavity damping. The detuning parameter is set equal to zero and the optical resonator does not contain any thermal photons. It is shown that the master equation for the density operator can be replaced by two algebraic recursion relations for vectors of dimension 2 and 4. These vectors are built up from suitably chosen matrix elements of the density operator. By performing an iterative procedure, the exact solution for each matrix element is found in the form of an infinite series. We demonstrate that all series are convergent and discuss how they can be truncated when carrying out numerical work. With the help of techniques from function theory, it is proved that our solutions respect the following conditions on the density operator: conservation of trace, Hermiticity, convergence to the initial state for small times, and convergence to the ground state for large times. We compute some matrix elements of the density operator for the case of weak damping and find that their analytic structure becomes much simpler. Finally, it is shown that the exact atomic density matrix converges to the state of maximum von Neumann entropy if the time, the square of the initial electromagnetic energy density, and the inverse of the cavity-damping parameter tend to infinity equally fast. The initial condition for the atom can be chosen freely, whereas the field may start from either a coherent or a photon-number state.
We have in this thesis looked at two very different problems related to quantum optics. In Part I we have studied the Jaynes-Cummings model with cavity damping and a thermal background. To give an introduction to the field we started Chapter 2 by repeating how one in general derives the master equations for a system coupled to a reservoir. We then repeat the Jaynes-Cummings model and show extensions of the Jaynes-Cummings model where cavity-damping and a thermal background are taken into account. We proceed, in Chapter 3, by finding an analytical solution to the Jaynes-Cummings model with cavity damping in a thermal background when there is no detuning in the system, i.e. we have resonance between the energy of the photons in the cavity and the energy difference in the excited and ground state of the atom. We derive analytical expressions for P+(t), the probability of finding the atom in an excited state after some transition time t given that the atom was prepared in an excited state, and P++(t), the probability of finding the atom in an excited state after some transition time t when a previous atom was measured to be in the excited state. Both atoms where initially prepared in the excited state. We also, in Section 3.7 make use of the Poisson summation formula to rewrite the analytical solution P+(t) in terms of a Fourier series, from which we can predict the location of the revivals in the system. In Section 3.8 we derive stationary results, i.e. when the transition time t→∞, for the probabilities P+(t) and P++(t) and the mean number of photons ‹ n(t) › in the cavity. From our analytical results one is, for instance, led to believe that the probability P+(t) approaches 0 as the transitiontime increases, when it in reality approaches the value nb/(1 + 2nb). The results of our study of the extended Jaynes-Cummings model is presented in the article “Macroscopic Interference Effects in Resonant Cavities” and is published in Physica Scripta [5]. The article is reprinted as Article 1 at the end of this thesis. In Chapter 4 we present the result of a numerical solution of the Jaynes-Cummings model with cavity damping in a thermal background. Here we consider both the resonant case and also the case where detuning is present in the system. When we compare our numerical simulation with our analytical solutions we find that the correlation between the two are close to 1, at least when experimental values of Walther et al. [22] and Brune et al. [15, 16] are used. We also present some figures that show how the revival times and probabilities previously discussed is affected by detuning. In Section 4.2 we find an analytical formula for the revival time where detuning is embedded. In Chapter 4 we also, shortly, discuss how the detuning changes the effective number of photons in the cavity and what criteria should be present in order to separate the revival times.In Part II we study some aspects of quantum mechanical phase. We start, in Section 5.1, by repeating the definition and some results of the Susskind-Glogower phase operator. We then turn our attention to the Pegg-Barnett phase operator [26, 27, 28] in Section 5.4. We describe how to evaluate expectation-values and variances of the Pegg-Barnett phase. In Section 5.5 we establish an upper and lower bound on the phase based on the Pegg-Barnett phase description.In Section 5.9 we repeat some details of a new formalism of the phase which we have conveniently called the NFM-formalism after its inventors Noh, Foug`eres and Mandel [29, 30, 31]. We then describe how to find expectation-values using the Pegg-Barnett phase operator definition applied to the NFM-experiment described in Section 5.9. Our work on the quantum mechanical phase operator is presented in the paper “On the Quantum Phase Operator for Coherent States” and is published in Physica Scripta [6]. This paper is reprinted as Article II at the end of this thesis.