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Physical Review A

Quantum theory of optical bistability without adiabatic elimination

M. D. Reid

Published Jun 1, 1988• 70 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A quantum theory describing N two-level atoms in a coherently driven single-mode optical ring cavity is presented. The usual approximation that one may adiabatically eliminate either the cavity or atomic variables is not made. Hence the results are valid for a range of relative cavity and atomic relaxation rates. The theory is based on the linearized equations derived in the positive P representation. A simple analytical solution is presented, including the effect of detunings, for the steady-state transmitted spectrum. The transmitted intensity and squeezing spectra are discussed.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.37.4792

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A quantum theory describing N two-level atoms in a coherently driven single-mode optical ring cavity is presented. The usual approximation that one may adiabatically eliminate either the cavity or atomic variables is not made. Hence the results are valid for a range of relative cavity and atomic relaxation rates. The theory is based on the linearized equations derived in the positive P representation. A simple analytical solution is presented, including the effect of detunings, for the steady-state transmitted spectrum. The transmitted intensity and squeezing spectra are discussed.
A quantum treatment of a coherently driven cavity with a medium of two-level atoms is given. The system displays both absorptive and dispersive bistability. Quantum fluctuations are included via a Fokker-Planck equation in a generalized PPP representation, after adiabatic elimination of the atomic variables. The transmitted spectrum and correlation function is calculated in a linearized (Gaussian) approximation. In the limit of large detuning and radiative damping, the quantum fluctuations are identical to those of a simple nonlinear polarizability theory. An analysis is given of the nonclassical statistical properties of the intensity-correlation spectrum.
We specialize the quantum-statistical theory of optical bistability developed in "Optical Bistability. II" to a low-QQQ cavity. From a linearized Fokker-Planck equation derived in the positive PPP representation, the steady-state correlation matrix and spectrum of fluctuations are calculated. Expressions which normally assume a positive-definite diffusion matrix are shown to be valid for nonpositive-definite diffusion. For absorptive bistability we find agreement with results derived previously by quite different methods. More generally we extend previously published results by including atomic and cavity detunings. We compare the transmitted spectrum for dispersive bistability with that for absorptive bistability, and photon antibunching in dispersive bistability is discussed.
We study the spectrum of squeezing in the light transmitted by a system of two-level atoms in an optical cavity driven by a coherent field, as recently observed by Kimble and collaborators. Our analysis does not introduce any restriction on the detuning parameters or on the relative order of magnitude of the atomic and cavity relaxation rates. Using the dressed-mode formalism, we derive explicit analytic expressions for the spectrum of squeezing and for the second-order intensity correlation function. We describe how the spectrum depends on the various parameters of the system; this study provides general indications on how to optimize the conditions to observe squeezing in optical bistability. A special attention is devoted to the changes of the spectrum under variation of the detuning parameters or on the ratio of cavity to atomic damping rate. In all cases, the changes are continuous and smooth, with quantitative variations in the level of squeezing. This indicates the existence of a single avenue to squeezing in this system. The bad-cavity direction is identified as especially convenient to obtain a significant amount of squeezing.
A linearized theory of fluctuations for absorptive bistability based on the positive P representation is developed without adiabatic elimination of the atoms or the field. An analytic expression for the steady-state covariance matrix is derived from which the size of quantum-statistical effects can be estimated without restriction to the good- or the bad-cavity limit. When the atom and field relaxation rates are similar the intensity correlation function of the transmitted light exhibits an oscillatory relaxation associated with vacuum Rabi splitting.
Optical bistability is reexamined as a candidate system for the generation of squeezed states of light. Previous analyses have concluded that significant squeezing can be achieved only in a rather extreme range of parameter space relative to current experimental capabilities and only over a restricted range of frequencies near the carrier.1 By contrast we have identified a new regime in which appreciable squeezing should be obtainable for rather modest operating conditions and without excessive demands on the stability of external control parameters. Following the treatment by Carmichael,2 we have conducted a theoretical search for optimal squeezing in optical bistability in the general case without adiabatic elimination of atomic or cavity variables. Our analysis is based on a linearization of the generalized Fokker-Planck equation for a system of N atoms coupled to a single mode of a high finesse cavity. For comparable atomic and cavity decay rates, there is a mode splitting in the eigenvalue structure of the system which is responsible for the vacuum field Rabi splitting. It is near the spectral features associated with these vacuum field Rabi sidebands that we find significant squeezing. The concepts of optimum squeezing as indicated by Mandel's Q parameter and by the spectrum of squeezing are discussed with reference to the various operating regimes in optical bistability.
A straightforward but general extension of the quantum theory of optical bistability is made to include spatial variations of the field mode in the good cavity limit. The analysis proceeds by dividing the field mode into small sections which are each microscopically large in terms of the atomic number to allow truncation of the generalized Fokker-Planck equation but which are macroscopically small to justify the assumption of constant field amplitude. In a linearized approximation, analytic expressions are obtained for the ratio of incoherent to coherent intensity and for the intensity correlation function of the transmitted field for the two particular examples of a Gaussian-mode field in a ring cavity and a plane-wave field in a standing-wave cavity. In the weak field limit the results of the plane-wave ring cavity are recovered independent of the form of the spatial dependence of the cavity mode. However, more generally a nonuniform distribution tends to suppress certain quantum features such as photon antibunching.