Physical Review A
Non-Markovian equations of motion for a driven two-level atom
Haider R. Zaidi
Abstract
A set of coupled non-Markovian equations of motion is derived for the Green's function of a driven two-level atom. These equations can be expressed in terms of the density-matrix elements only in the Markovian limit, in which case the set reduces to optical Bloch equations. The non-Markovian effect arises from correlations between successive photon emissions, an effect which is neglected in the existing equations of motion. The resulting correction is of the order of ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{0}$/${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{0}$ in the strong-field region (${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{0}$${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{0}$) and it vanishes in the weak-field region, where ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{0}$ is the Einstein A coefficient and ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{0}$ is the Rabi frequency.