Resonance fluorescence from a single two-level atom driven by a beam of squeezed light is studied in the weak field limit. We consider the situation where the atom is coupled to the ordinary vacuum and only a few field modes corresponding to the driving field are squeezed. The field produced by the degenerate optical parametric oscillator is used as the driving field. This driving field can be described in terms of two real independent Gaussian processes. Heisenberg equations of motion are solved in the steady-state, and analytic expressions for the fluorescent light intensity and the spectrum of fluorescent light are derived. We also consider photon statistics of fluorescent light. In particular, squeezing, antibunching, and sub-Poissonian statistics of fluorescent photons are discussed and analytic expressions for the quadrature variance and the two-time intensity correlation function are presented. Contrary to the case of coherent excitation the second-order intensity correlation function does not factorize.
We discuss a mean-field quantum-mechanical model which describes the dynamics of a homogeneously broadened system of two-level atoms contained in a pencil-shaped resonant cavity and driven by a coherent resonant field
EI. The model is treated in the semiclassical approximation. The model is justified on the basis of Maxwell-Bloch equations with two coherently coupled directions of propagation, with boundary conditions for the fields taken into account. Above a suitable critical density of atoms the system exhibits a bistable behavior including both the stationary situation and the transient, both the light transmitted in the forward direction and the fluorescent light. Bistability is shown to be a consequence of atomic cooperation. We give a simple description of optical bistability leading to new predictions for the transient behavior of the transmitted light and for the spectrum of the fluorescent light. The damping constant which characterizes the rate of appraoch to the stationary situation exhibits a hysteresis cycle. In the low-transmission regime the approach is monotonic, whereas in the highly transmitting situation the approach is oscillatory. One finds a critical slowing down in correspondence with the values
EI(+), ${{E}_{I}}^{(\ensuremath{-})}$ of the incident field where the transmitted field (as well as the total fluorescence intensity, the rate of approach to the stationary state, etc.) changes discontinuously. On the basis of the regression hypothesis we give a qualitative description of the spectrum of the fluorescent light. This is shown to undergo hysteresis and discontinuous changes at the same values
EI(+), ${E}_{I}^{(\ensuremath{-})}$ of the incident field. Below the critical density of atoms one recovers the usual picture of resonance fluorescence, with a continuous transition from a single-line spectrum to a three-peaked structure when the Rabi frequency becomes equal to the natural linewidth. Above the critical density the triplet appears only when the Rabi frequency becomes equal to the cooperative linewidth of pure super-fluorescence (i.e., for
EI=EI(+)). Moreover, it appears discontinuously: when
EI crosses the value
EI(+) the spectrum changes from a single narrow line to a triplet with well-separated sidebands.
Resonance fluorescence from a single two-level atom driven by a beam of squeezed light is studied in the weak-field limit. We consider the situation where the atom is coupled to the ordinary vacuum and only a few field modes corresponding to the driving field are squeezed. The field produced by the degenerate optical parametric oscillator is used as the driving field. Heisenberg equations of motion are solved in the steady-state and analytic expressions for the fluorescent-light intensity and the spectrum of fluorescent light are derived. We also consider photon statistics of fluorescent light. In particular, squeezing, antibunching, and sub-Poissonian statistics of fluorescent photons are discussed, and analytic expressions for the quadrature variance and the two-time intensity correlation function are presented. Contrary to the case of coherent excitation, the second-order intensity correlation function does not factorize. This and other differences are discussed, and curves are presented to illustrate the behavior of various quantities. We also present results for thermal excitation of the atom.
A system of N identical superimposed two-level atoms (the Dicke model) interacting with one another and driven by a fluctuating laser field of finite phase and amplitude bandwidths is considered. An exact master equation for the phase-averaged reduced atomic density operator is derived using the theory of multiplicative stochastic processes. It is shown that in the absence of amplitude fluctuations, this equation admits an exact steady-state solution. The exact solution is further used to obtain and analyse the behaviour of the phase-averaged atomic observables and atomic correlation functions in the steady state. The principal results of our analysis is that the phase fluctuations tend to smooth the discontinuities in the observables and the correlation functions found in the non-fluctuating case. Further, including the amplitude fluctuations as well we derive in the high-field limit a Markovian master equation for the density operator averaged over the ensembles of both phase and amplitude fluctuations. The quantum regression theorem is used to derive and discuss exact analytical expressions for the fluorescent spectrum and the second-order intensity correlation function for a system of two interacting atoms.
Considers a system of N coherently driven two-level atoms contained in a volume with dimensions much smaller than a wavelength. The atoms may decay by a completely cooperative mechanism which conserves (J 2 ), alternatively they may decay by a mechanism which fails to conserve (J 2 ). The steady-state behaviour in each case is determined using the single-atom solutions together with two limiting approximations: (a) complete atomic correlation, (b) no atomic correlation. In case (a) a behaviour characteristic of a second-order phase transition is obtained while in case (b) a first-order phase transition results.
The problem of the interaction between a two-level atom and a quantum electromagnetic field is treated without the use of perturbation theory, without introduction of classical fields or factorization conditions for the states, and without assumptions about loss of memory. The calculation is carried out in the Heisenberg picture, without mode decomposition, and the conclusions all refer to physically measurable quantities, such as the fluorescence detected in the far field of the atom. It is shown that in a coherent field of constant amplitude the system always settles down to a quasistationary state, and that the stationarity is a manifestation of the quantum fluctuations. A solution for the growth of the fluorescent light intensity is presented that holds for any coherent exciting field. The two-time correlation function and the spectral density of the fluorescence are calculated, and are found to agree in the long-time limit with earlier results of Mollow. The two-time intensity correlation function of the field is derived, which corresponds to measurable photoelectric pair correlations, and it is found that this reflects several quantum features of the field. It is shown that quantum fluctuations are manifest more explicitly in two-time correlations in the steady state than in transient effects, like spontaneous emission in the vacuum. The measurement of such correlations therefore presents an opportunity for further experimental tests of quantum electrodynamics.