Intensity Auto- and Cross-Correlations and Other Properties of a 85 Rb Atom Coupled to a Driven, Damped Two-Mode Optical Cavity

Patrick Hemphill, James Clemens

Patrick Hemphill, James Clemens

We calculate intensity autocorrelations and cross correlations for the light transmitted from a system consisting of a three-level Λ-type atom inside an optical cavity that supports two orthogonally polarized modes with one mode of the cavity weakly driven on resonance. We also include damping of the cavity modes and spontaneous emission from the atom using the framework of quantum trajectory theory. The correlation functions are compared with those of a two-level atom/cavity system as the coupling to the third level is increased, and we find a transition from photon bunching to photon antibunching. The three-level model allows the atom to couple to both field modes for which we calculate intensity cross correlations that exhibit nonclassical behaviors. Finally, we discuss the lack of entanglement between the field modes despite their common coupling to the same atom and the presence of atom-field entanglement.

Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-UniversitBonn

Wade P. Smith, Joseph E. Reiner, Stefan Kuhr +1 more

V. R. Thakar, Arun Bahuleyan, V. I. Gokul +2 more

We study self-sustained cavity emission from driven atoms in collective strong coupling. The cavity emission occurs over a wide range of atom-cavity and drive-laser detunings without any external input to the cavity mode. Second-order correlation measurements ${g}^{(2)}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ further reveal unanticipated phenomena in the observed cavity emission such as (1) damped oscillations at two frequencies and (2) significantly distinct ${g}^{(2)}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ for different polarization components. The intricate relation between cavity-emission intensity, drive-laser detuning, and atom-cavity detunings is explained. A possible mechanism for the damped oscillations with two frequency components in ${g}^{(2)}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ is suggested. Measurements show the existence of two separate polarization-decoupled mechanisms with distinct photon statistics, through which energy is transferred from the drive field to the cavity field. The statistical properties and mechanisms underlying cavity emission present valuable insights for extending nondestructive detection techniques to the regime of collective strong coupling.

Lamia E. Thabet, D. A. M. Abo-Kahla