Continuous photodetection of resonance fluorescence

M. C. de Oliveira, Salomon Sylvain Mizrahi, V. V. Dodonov

G. Nelson Jones, Ching Tsung Lee

The concept of photodetection as a continuous quantum measurement introduced by Srinivas and Davies is extended to the detection of resonance fluorescence. This is a new approach to an old subject. This is also a new development in continuous photodetection in the sense that a fermion rather than the traditional boson field is the subject of monitoring. The superoperators for the no-count and the one-count processes are postulated, following the examples of Srinivas and Davies. The probability for the m-count process is then derived on the basis of these postulates. The first two factorial moments of the photon-number distribution are calculated, which are then used to evaluate the non-classical effects in resonance fluorescence. A parameter slightly different from Mandel's is found to be more suitable indicator of photon antibunching in the transient state.

Thomas J. Mcilrath, Thomas J. McGee

H. Z. Zhao, Zhou Lu, John E. Thomas

We measure phase-dependent fluorescence spectra of two-level atoms driven by a monochromatic laser field, for off-resonance excitation. Pairs of spectra with phases of opposite sign are found to display striking differences that arise entirely from time ordering.

George P. Miroshnichenko

A method is proposed for generating conditional single-photon states with a high degree of purity in a single-mode cavity by successive discrete photodetection. The cavity is pumped by resonance fluorescence emission from a source atom driven by a classical field. The cavity is tuned to a Mollow sideband. A relation between detector parameters is found that makes it possible to interpret the detection of a probe atom in the excited state as unambiguous evidence that a pure single-photon state has been prepared in the cavity. An expression is derived for the prior probability of such an event, and dependence of the one-photon state population of the cavity field on detuning, relaxation rate, and time is examined.

Pierre Meystre, Murray Sargent