Chaos in the micromaser (A)

R. Bullough, N. M. Bogoliubov, Ravinder Rupchand Puri

M. WEIDINGER O. BENSON

HERBERT WALTHER

P Meystre

This chapter discusses the novel aspects of cavity QED that are not only relevant to traditional quantum optics (lasers and masers, coherence theory, non-classical fields, etc.), but simultaneously make contact with nonlinear dynamics and chaos. A micromaser consisting of a single-mode cavity in which two-level atoms are injected at such a low rate that at most one atom at a time is present inside the cavity. In recent work, a complete quantum theory of the micromaser, including resonator losses, is presented. A detailed study of the dynamics of the quantum-mechanical micromaser is called for, and it will hopefully contribute to a better understanding of quantum chaos in dissipative quantum mechanical systems. A semi-classical version of the micromaser is generally chaotic and exhibits a number of coexisting basins of attraction. The micromaser is a truly quantum-mechanical system which is within reach of experimental investigations.

Georg A. Raithel, Oliver J. Benson, HERBERT WALTHER

J. C. Retamal, C. Saavedra, Edmundo Lazo

We study the chaotic behavior of the internal field in a micromaser with injected atomic coherence. The quantum dynamics provides a return map in the semiclassical limit which we study as a function of the reduced atom-field interaction time. Bifurcations, chaos, and transitions between bifurcation sequences appear in a broad range of the parameter space.