Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) has become one of themost successful tools for quantum information processing, butalso for the study of other pure quantum effects. In thisthesis we investigate one such system, the micromaser; an atomtraverse a cavity and interacts with the quantized modes of thecavity field. Today, the relaxation times of the atom and thecavity field can be made orders of magnitude longer than singleinteraction times, which makes it possible to carry out severaloperations on the system before decoherence becomessignificant. One can often, to a good approximation, treat themicromaser problem by considering the atom as a two-levelsystem interacting with just one of the modes, and losses ofthe combined system can be neglected during the interaction.Any rotations of the atomic Bloch vector during the interactionare, in principle, achievable with modern laser techniques. Forexample, the atom can be Stark shifted in a controlled fashionwith external lasers while it passes through the cavity.The micromaser is theoretically well described by the famousJaynes-Cummings model. Here we look into the problem arisingwhen the parameters of the Jaynes-Cummings model, which are theatom-field coupling and detuning, are allowed to vary in time.What possibilities may occur by letting the parameters dependon time? This question is fairly unanalyzed in the literatureand we are especially interested in preparing variousnon-classical states of the field. The states of the atoms aremeasured after the interactions with thefield and we considerboth the cases when the results of the detections are collectedor not. It is shown that, both in the non-selective andselective measurement procedure, any Fock state can begenerated. We also discuss how one can heat up or cool down thefield and how to prepare entangled states including more thanone mode. The photon field statistics are investigated when theparameters becomes time dependent and field losses areconsidered.
Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) has become one of themost successful tools for quantum information processing, butalso for the study of other pure quantum effects. In thisthesis we investigate one such system, the micromaser; an atomtraverse a cavity and interacts with the quantized modes of thecavity field. Today, the relaxation times of the atom and thecavity field can be made orders of magnitude longer than singleinteraction times, which makes it possible to carry out severaloperations on the system before decoherence becomessignificant. One can often, to a good approximation, treat themicromaser problem by considering the atom as a two-levelsystem interacting with just one of the modes, and losses ofthe combined system can be neglected during the interaction.Any rotations of the atomic Bloch vector during the interactionare, in principle, achievable with modern laser techniques. Forexample, the atom can be Stark shifted in a controlled fashionwith external lasers while it passes through the cavity.The micromaser is theoretically well described by the famousJaynes-Cummings model. Here we look into the problem arisingwhen the parameters of the Jaynes-Cummings model, which are theatom-field coupling and detuning, are allowed to vary in time.What possibilities may occur by letting the parameters dependon time? This question is fairly unanalyzed in the literatureand we are especially interested in preparing variousnon-classical states of the field. The states of the atoms aremeasured after the interactions with thefield and we considerboth the cases when the results of the detections are collectedor not. It is shown that, both in the non-selective andselective measurement procedure, any Fock state can begenerated. We also discuss how one can heat up or cool down thefield and how to prepare entangled states including more thanone mode. The photon field statistics are investigated when theparameters becomes time dependent and field losses areconsidered.
Due to the improvement within cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments during the last decades, what was former seen as 'toy models' are today realized in laboratories. A controlled isolated coherent evolution of one or a few atoms coupled to a single mode inside a cavity is achievable. Such systems are well suited for studying purely quantum mechanical effects, and also for performing quantum gates, necessary for quantum computing. The Jaynes-Cummings model has served as a theoretical description of the interaction. However, as the experimental techniques are improved, for example, atom cooling, the use of multi-level atoms or multi-modes and driving of atoms or elds by external lasers, extensions of the original Jaynes-Cummings model are needed. In this thesis we study some of these extended models, and in particular multi-level models, time-dependent models and quantized motion models. Both analytical and numerical analysis are considered. The two-level structure of the Jaynes-Cummings model leads to applications of known solvable time-dependent two-level Schrödinger equations. In other cases, di erent forms of adiabatic approximate solutions are used, and with the analytically solvable models, the amplitudes of non-adiabatic contributions may be estimated. For higher dimensional systems, STIRAP and multi-STIRAP methods are applied. It is shown how the time-dependent models may be used for preparation of various kinds of non-classical states, and also to generate universal sets of quantum gates, both on atomic and eld qubits. When the atoms are cooled to very low temperatures, their velocities must be treated quantum mechanically, and we have studied the dynamics of such cases for di erent coupling shapes. Again numerical and analytical approaches have been used and compared, wave-packet propagations of the atom, approaching and traversing the cavity, have been performed. For periodic couplings, standing wave cavity modes, the dynamics has been described by e ective parameters; group velocity or atomic index of refraction and effective mass. Tunneling resonances for ultra cold atoms have been exhibited in the STIRAP models for certain initial conditions.
A distinctive signature of the granulated nature of the electromagnetic field is the revivals known to occur in the dynamics of a two-level atom interacting with a single-field mode (Jaynes-Cummings model). The development of high-Q single-mode cavities combined with progress in Rydberg atom spectroscopy has led to a possibility of verifying these predictions. Revival experiments using micromasers have been performed by Walther et al. Here the cavity mode is first allowed to reach a steady state, and then probe atoms are injected into the resonator. By measuring their state as they exit the cavity, one can infer the state of the field. We show that the micromaser experiences Jaynes-Cummingslike revivals when the pump parameter θ is varied. However, in contrast to the conventional Jaynes-Cummings situation, which considers initially coherent fields, the micromaser photon statistics are usually not Poissonian and depend sensitively on θ. The micromaser revivals cannot be explained by a semiclassical theory or linearized quantum fluctuations about the semiclassical solution. Rather, an exact quantum treatment, considering fully the granularity of the cavity mode, is required.
There are only fistful of systems in physics that can be described by an exact theory from first principles and, at the same time, can be investigated under experimental conditions approaching the idealized theoretical ones. The one-atom-maser or micromaser provides such an example, making a detailed study of the fundamental properties of the atom-field interaction possible. The situation realized in a micromaser is very close to the ideal case of a single two-level atom interacting with a single quantized mode of a cavity field. In the micromaser the atoms have a dual purpose of both pumping the field and also probing it via measurements of the outgoing atoms. Any other means of measuring the field inside the resonator has the detrimental effect of lowering its Q-factor and thereby the photon storage time. The long photon storage time of the resonator allows for the decay of the field to be negligible during the passage of an atom and its interaction with the field. The behavior of atoms in a cavity is governed by the oscillatory exchange of energy between the atoms and the field, which is called Rabi oscillation. For cavity fields in the vacuum and few photon number states (Fock states), Rabi oscillations have been measured in the past. To prevent thermal effects from polluting the pure number states these experiments were performed at low temperatures (below 1 K). However, the observed resolution of the Rabi oscillations measurements was quite disappointing (only about 2% of the predicted theoretical value) and precluded more ambitious experiments like atom-atom correlations or time resolved investigations of the maser field dynamics. The observed contrast of Rabi oscillations can be considered as a figure of merit for the experimental resolution of quantum features of a maser field. Therefore, a high resolution in the measurements of Rabi oscillations is crucial. This thesis describes the methods and improvements applied to enhance the resolution of Rabi oscillations by a factor of 8. The following upgrades and developments proved to be crucial in this work: 1) The base temperature of the cryogenic system was lowered to 0.3 K, i.e. one third of the original value. At the same time, the time during which the system remains at the base temperature was improved by almost of an order of magnitude (to more than 12 h). 2) For the promotion of the atoms to the Rydberg regime new three-step diode laser setup was constructed. The excitation efficiency compared to the old dye laser was increased by two orders. Using top-of-fringe stabilization with new spectroscopic methods, specially designed error detection and feedback schemes as well as state-of-the-art PID regulators the continuous locking of lasers is about 8 h (compared to about 20 min with the old dye laser system). 3) The flexibility of using the three step excitation allows to excite different maser states and for the first time to investigate pure maser transition. 4) Various improvements on the atomic oven and the channeltron detection unit led to the reliable and stable production and detection of the atomic beam. Observed distribution of the atomic beam statistics reaches to within 6% the Poisson limit which is expected in the absence of experimental imperfections. 5) New developed techniques in magnetic field compensation allow to perform such measurements with two orders of magnitude better accuracy compared to the previous experiments. To demonstrate the new capabilities of the apparatus and to apply its improved resolution of quantum fields we performed a previously impossible in-depth analysis of mean photon number and the atomic inversion produced by a micromaser for various detunings between the cavity- and atomic resonance frequency.
We analyze the problem of a single mode field interacting with a pair of two level atoms. The atoms enter and exit the cavity at different times. Instead of using constant coupling, we use time-dependent couplings which represent the spatial dependence of the mode. Although the system evolution is adiabatic for most of the time, a previously unstudied energy crossing plays a key role in the system dynamics when the atoms have a time delay. We show that conditional atom-cavity entanglement can be generated, while for large photon numbers the entangled system has a behavior which can be mapped onto the single atom Jaynes-Cummings model. Exploring the main features of this system we propose simple and fairly robust methods for entangling atoms independently of the cavity, for quantum state mapping, and for implementing SWAP and controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates with atomic qubits.
A single two-level emitter coupled to a single mode of an electromagnetic resonator constitutes the most fundamental instance of light--matter interaction. Realizations of this type of system are investigated in the field of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED). Particularly important are schemes in which the coupling is strong enough to exceed the spontaneous emission rate as well as cavity damping. In this case, the coherent exchange of excitation between source and photon is the dominating process, providing the unique possibility to deterministically control the quantum evolution of the system. Great progress has recently been accomplished, technologically as well as conceptually, and the focus section in this issue of Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics features five articles highlighting important recent developments in the field. Strong coupling between single atoms and the electromagnetic cavity field have been achieved in two distinct regimes, the optical and the microwave region. The latter is represented by the micromaser, a high-Q microwave cavity pumped by a beam of highly excited Rydberg atoms. It has proved to be an almost ideal system for the generation of non-classical field states. A constraint in these experiments is the fact that the field inside the cavity can only be examined indirectly, by analysing the occupation of atoms leaving the cavity. While only two atomic states were previously identified for this purpose, V A Reshetov shows in his article (pages 119--126) that more information on the field may be extracted by taking advantage of the Zeeman substructure of the atomic levels. In the optical domain of cavity QED, by contrast, the state of the resonator field may be probed directly by measuring the light leaking from the cavity using photodetectors. In order to minimize damping, high-quality cavities must be employed. In most optical experiments these are Fabry--Perot resonators with ultra-high reflectivity mirrors, with losses as low as a few parts per million being state of the art. At the same time, the coupling of atoms and photons is enhanced by reducing the length of the cavity, so that strong coupling conditions are reached. A very attractive application of this type of cavity QED setup is the possibility of exerting control over the quantum dynamics of the system. An impressive example is the implementation of quantum feedback, reported in the paper by W P Smith and L A Orozco (pages 127--134). Using information gained from detecting a single photon escaping from the cavity, active feedback is applied to halt the dynamical evolution of the system. This is the first time active feedback has been used to modify the quantum evolution of a system at the single-photon level. The authors discuss how detunings between the subsystems affect the quantum feedback, an issue particularly relevant for ensembles of atoms with a spread in detuning. Perfect quantum feedback in this case requires the use of additional parameters to control the system. The majority of optical cavity QED experiments performed so far have used as a medium atoms traversing the cavity on random trajectories, such as, for example, thermal atomic beams. In this case, the observation of quantum effects is degraded in two ways. The Doppler effect and the finite transit time lead to line broadening, while the spatial structure of the cavity mode results in atoms in different locations experiencing different coupling with the photonic field. J E Reiner et al (pages 135--142) investigate the impact of these effects on quantum fluctuations in their cavity QED system. In order to overcome line broadening, they have developed a continuous cold atomic beam, extracted from a magneto-optical trap. An even better control of broadening effects and fluctuating coupling strength is provided by trapping the atoms inside the cavity and cooling them to temperatures at which their position spread is smaller than the optical wavelength. Much recent activity has been devoted to developing such an ultimate cavity QED system. A Vukics et al (pages 143--153) present a theoretical proposal for dynamically trapping and cooling atoms inside a cavity. By driving the atoms with a standing wave injected from the side of the cavity and by weakly exciting the cavity field itself, they predict three-dimensional trapping of the atom for periods around 1 second, an extremely long time on the typical scale of cavity QED dynamics. The essential component of their scheme is the interference between the two driving fields, determining the temperature of the particle and the stable trapping positions. In the quest for better confinement of radiation, lately, an appealing alternative to the Fabry--Perot cavity has been investigated -- the optical microsphere resonator. A sphere with a diameter of a few tens of microns, it supports so-called whispering gallery modes near its circumference, for which quality factors up to 10 10 have been measured. In order to exploit the correspondingly low field damping rates for cavity QED, a method must be found to couple atomic or solid state emitters to these modes. S Göotzinger et al (pages 154--158) report the coupling of single nanocrystals on the surface of a microsphere through the evanescent field of the mode. Selective excitation of a single nano-emitter was accomplished with a scanning confocal microscope. The system is a promising candidate for cavity QED with single-quantum emitters. The ability to fully control the quantum dynamics of atoms and light is beginning to spawn early applications. The most notable example is quantum information processing. This requires the coherent manipulation of single-quantum systems, which is ideally provided by cavity QED interaction in the strong-coupling limit. The development of practical devices will be among the principal future tasks for research in the field. This will include physical systems, which have not been covered in this issue, such as semiconductors, quantum dots as emitters, or photonic crystals as resonator structures. Cavity QED is therefore guaranteed to remain a vigorous field in the years to come.
In this paper, we study the interaction between the time-dependent field and a two-level atom with one mode electromagnetic field. We consider that the field of photons is assumed to be coupled with modulated coupling parameter which depends explicitly on time. It is shown that the considered model can be reduced to a well-known form of the time-dependent generalized Jaynes–Cummings model. Under special initial conditions, in which the atom and the field are prepared in the excited and the coherent states, respectively, the explicit time evolution of the wave function of the entire system is analytically obtained. Our proposal has many advantages over the previous optical schemes and can be realized in several multiple experiments, such as trapped ions and quantum electrodynamics cavity. The influence of the time-dependent field parameter on the collapses-revivals, the normal squeezing of the radiation, the anti-bunching of photons and the entanglement phenomena for the considered atomic system is examined. The linear entropy, the von Neumann entropy are used to quantify entanglement in the quantum systems. We noticed that these phenomena are affected by the existence of both the time-dependent coupling field and detuning parameters.