Non-classical effects in photon-statistics of atomic optical bistability

Ullrich Martini, Christian Ginzel, Axel Schenzle

J. N. Elgin, Sarben Sarkar

R. Bonifacio, Luigi A. Lugiato

Gerhard Rempe, Robert J. Thompson, Robert J. Brecha +2 more

The quantum statistical behavior of a small collection of N two-state atoms strongly coupled to the field of a high-finessse optical cavity is investigated. Input-output characteristics are recorded over the range 3\ensuremath{\lesssim}N\ensuremath{\lesssim}65, with bistability observed for N\ensuremath{\gtrsim}15 intracavity atoms and for a saturation photon number ${\mathit{n}}_{0}$\ensuremath{\simeq}0.8. For weak excitation the transmitted field exhibits photon antibunching as a nonclassical manifestation of state reduction and quantum interference with the magnitude of the nonclassical effects largely independent of N.

Daniel B. Erenso, Ron Adams, Hua Deng +2 more

Homodyne statistics of light generated by an atomic system exhibiting optical bistability are analyzed. Using the dynamical equations of motion for a single atom in a coherently driven cavity in the good cavity limit, we show that the homodyne field can be described in terms of two independent real Gaussian stochastic processes and a coherent component. By making a Karhunen-Lo\`eve expansion of the field variables we derive the generating function for the photoelectron statistics. From this generating function photoelectron-counting distribution, factorial moments, and waiting-time distribution are obtained analytically. These quantities are directly measurable in photon-counting experiments. We show that the homodyne field exhibits many interesting nonclassical features including nonclassical effects in higher-order factorial moments.

J.N. Elgin, Sarben Sarkar

An expression is obtained for the photon number distribution, p n, of light transmitted by a bistable cavity in the bad cavity limit, and under the assumption that single atom effects can be ignored. The result is exact, fully quantum mechanical and does not make any assumptions about decorrelations of correlation functions. Particular cases are discussed.