Strong Correlation of Fluorescence Photons without Quantum Interference

It has been predicted that a driven three-level V atom can emit strongly correlated fluorescence photons in the presence of quantum interference. Here we examine the effects of quantum interference on the intensity correlation of fluorescence photons emitted from a driven three-level A atom. Unexpectedly, strong correlation occurs without quantum interference. The quantum interference tends to reduce the correlation function to a normal level. The essential difference between these two cases is traced to the different effects of quantum interference on coherent population trapping （OPT）. For the V atom, quantum interference and coherent excitation combine to lead to OPT. For the A atom, however, the quantum interference tends to spoil OPT while the coherent excitation induces the effect.     

Controlling spontaneous emission in a driven M-type atom by low-frequency coherence

We have studied the spontaneous emission behaviour in a five-level M-type atom driven by two optical fields of high frequencies and a microwave field of low-frequency. In absence of non-orthogonal decaying pathways, due to microwave field induced low-frequency coherence, the present model produces the emission spectrum resembling that of a three-level system controlled by the effect of vacuum induced decay-interference. For particular sets of values of the Rabi frequencies of the resonant coherent fields, the system exhibits quantum interference induced switching effect. By using this model, we have shown that the phenomenon of narrowing can be induced in the emission peaks without any detuning and phase control of the coherent fields. With the increase in the value of the Rabi frequency of the microwave field, this feature will be accompanied by the peak-compression and -repulsion effect. When the coherent fields are far from resonance, the appearance of the single-photon and the two-photon peaks in the emission spectrum can be easily controlled by changing the value of the Rabi frequency of the microwave field. We have shown the appearance of multiple dark regions in the emission line shape for equal as well as unequal decay rates of two emission pathways. Other interesting phenomena like elimination, enhancement and suppression of spectral line are also explored in various resonant and non-resonant cases.     

Quantum interference effect on spontaneous emission spectrum in a doubly driven M-type atom

An M-type atomic system with two closely spaced upper levels interacting with the same modes of the vacuum radiation field exhibits the interference effect between the spontaneous decay channels. The phenomenon of this decay-interference along with the dynamically induced quantum interference created in the system by two coherent fields can change significantly the spontaneous emission spectrum. Our results highlight large enhancement of ultranarrow spectral components within the spontaneous emission line shape in various conditions. We have shown the occurrence of two contradistinctive phenomena: compression of two spectral lines towards their mid-position and the spreading of two lines away from each other under different dynamic conditions. The phenomenon of suppression of spectral line and the quenching of spontaneous emission have also been focused.     

Strong Correlation and Anticorrelation via Phase-Dependent Coherent Population Trapping

We present the phase control of photon correlations in a driven four-level system in the double lambda configuration. The strong correlation and the anticorrelation are. obtained when the collective phase of four applied laser fields is varied. The coherent control is based on the phase-dependent coherent population trapping （CPT）. The strong correlation occurs when the system operates near CPT, while the anticorrelation occurs when the system is far away from CPT.     

Localization of a Three-Level Cascade Atom via Resonant Absorption

We show that it is possible to localize a three-level cascade atom under the resonance condition when it passes through a standing-wave field. The localization peaks appear at the nodes of the standing-wave field, the detecting probability is 50% in the subwavelength domain, and the peaks are narrower on the resonance than the off- resonance. The absorption is the same as that in the usual two-level medium at the nodes and is greatly suppressed outside the nodes due to the Autler-Townes splitting. This is in sharp contrast to the lambda scheme, in which the localization is impossible under the same resonance condition due to the depletion of population of the initial state by the probe field at the nodes and the electromagnetically induced transparency outside the nodes.     

Spontaneous emission of a three-level lambda-type atom coupled to separate reservoirs

Considering the anisotropic dispersion model, the upper state population and spontaneous emission spectrum of three-level lambda-type atom with two transitions coupled to separate reservoirs are investigated using the resolvent operator. The upper state population reaches to a steady state value after a weak oscillation when the decay rate is zero and one transition frequency is inside the bandgap. The spectrum associated with each transition was given. Compared with results that were obtained by using isotropic dispersion model, the shape of spectrum changes significantly, and no dark line appears in the spectra.     

Bichromatic and trichromatic manipulation of spontaneous emission in a three-level Λ system

Bichromatic and trichromatic manipulation of spontaneous emission in a three-level system in Λ configuration is studied on the basis of density matrix equation and quantum regression theorem. The spontaneous emission spectrum is numerically calculated by using harmonic expansion and matrix inversion. Two characteristic features are shown. Firstly, the central resonance peak, which is absent in the case of monochromatic excitation, is recovered for the bichromatic or trichromatic excitation. Secondly, selective elimination of the spectral lines is obtained by varying the amplitudes and phases of the trichromatic components. For the phase dependence, it is the sum of the relative phases of the two sideband components to the central component that plays a crucial role. The spontaneous emission spectrum is drastically modified once the sum phase is changed, but is kept unchanged regardless of the respective phases when the sum phase is fixed.     

Ultrafast control of coherent population transfer with a train of femtosecond pulse pairs

We investigate the ultrafast control of coherent population transfer in a Λ-type three-level system with a train of pump-Stokes femtosecond pulse pairs, where the pulse sequences can be produced either by optical delay line or by pulse shaping with sinusoidal phase modulation. It is shown that when the pump and Stokes pulses in each pair are applied in the counterintuitive order, similar to that in the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage technique, due to temporal quantum interference (besides optical interference in the case of overlapped subpulses), ultrafast control of coherent population transfer can be achieved by scanning the inter-pair time delay or by changing the sinusoidal phase modulation parameters. This method has potential applications in ultrafast control of chemical reactions and quantum information processing.     

Enhancement of Continuous Variable Entanglement in Four-Wave Mixing due to Atomic Memory Effects

We explore the effects of atomic memory on quantum correlations of two-mode light fields from four-wave mixing. A three-level atomic system in A configuration is considered, in which the atomic relaxation times are comparable to or longer than the cavity relaxation times and thus there exists the atomic memory. The quantum correlation spectrum in the output is calculated without the adiabatic elimination of atomic variables. It is shown that the continuous variable entanglement is enhanced over a wide range of the normalized detuning in the intermediate and bad cavity cases compared with the good cavity case. In some situations more significant enhancement occurs at sidebands.     

Coherent Population Trapping Induced by Phase Modulated and Fluctuating Fields

We examine the effects of cross correlated phase fluctuations on the coherent population trapping （CPT） induced by a pair of phase-modulated fields with equal modulation frequencies in a three-level A system. The maximal coherence of-0.5, which appears when CPT occurs for equal modulation indices, is preserved in the presence of the critically cross-correlated fluctuations. Unexpectedly, the non-maximal coherence, which is established when CPT is obtained for different modulation indices, is significantly enhanced due to the critically cross-correlated fluctuations.     

Spectral line suppression and sideband narrowing via quantum interference

We reveal that for a realistic system, interference effects are obtained such as the suppression of central line and inner sidebands and the narrowing of the outer fluorescence sidebands. For this purpose, we consider a spontaneous decay from an excited state to a metastable state when the excited and metastable states are resonantly coupled to an auxiliary metastable state by a laser field and a microwave field, respectively. The fluorescence spectrum evolves from a five-peaked structure into a doublet of ultrasharp lines as the ratio of the laser field Rabi frequency to the microwave Rabi frequency is decreased. The physical origin is presented in terms of dressed states.     

Sub-Half-Wavelength Atom Localization via Coherent Control of Autler-Townes Spontaneous Spectrum

We show that it is possible to localize an atom in a half-wavelength region by relaxing the strict condition that the atom is prepared in a specific excited state as in the recently proposed scheme [Phys. Rev. A 65 （2002） 043819]. In particular, we consider a four-level atom, for which a weak exciting field transfers population from the ground state to the excited state and three control fields （one standing-wave field while two travelling-wave fields） couple the excited state and two auxiliary states. By tuning the exciting field and by varying the collective phase of the control fields, the atom is localized in one of the two half-wavelength regions with 50% detecting probability. The main advantage of the scheme is the experimental accessibility and controllability.     

Cavity-Induced Enhancement of Squeezing in Resonance Fluorescence of a V-Type Three-Level Atom

The quadrature squeezing spectra in the resonance fluorescence of a V-type three-level atom driven by a coherent field and coupled to a single-mode cavity is investigated. For weak excitation, the fluorescence field exhibit squeezing in the out-of-phase quadrature. The coupling between the atom and the cavity mode can greatly enhance the squeezing centred at the laser frequency. More importantly, for strong excitation, under the effect of the cavity-atom coupling, the in-phase quadrature of fluorescence can exhibit two-mode squeezing at the two inner sideband frequencies. By working in the dressed-state representation and hiring secular approximation, we give an analytical explanation for the effect. The result shows, under appropriate conditions, the squeezing can be greatly enhanced by appropriately tuning the cavity resonant frequency.     

Spontaneous Emission of an Atom in a Spacetime with Two Parallel Reflecting Boundaries

We consider an inertial two-level atom in interaction with a real massless scalar quantum field in a spacetime between two parallel reflecting plane boundaries, and calculate the contributions of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction to the rate of change of the atomic energy. Our results show that there exists a regime of the separation L between the two boundaries such that the excited atom＇s spontaneous emission is impossible. There also exist certain values of the atom＇s position such that the corrections due to the presence of boundaries balance each other, so that the atom＇s spontaneous emission rate is the same as if there were no boundaries at all.     

Spontaneous Emission of an Inertial Multi-Level Atom in a Spacetime with a Reflecting Plane Boundary

We calculate the contributions of the vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction to the rate of change of the mean atomic energy for a multi-level hydrogen atom in the multipolar coupling scheme in a spacetime with a reflecting boundary. Our results show that, due to the presence of the boundary, the polarizations of the atom in the parallel direction and in the normal direction are weighted differently in terms of their contributions to the spontaneous emission rate, which is an oscillating function of the atom distance from the boundary. The possible experimental implications of our result are briefly discussed.     

Spontaneously generated coherence in a Doppler broadened atomic system

We investigate the spontaneously generated coherence (SGC) in a Doppler broadened four-level atomic system driven by two coherent fields. We plot the spontaneous emission spectra with different parameters and discuss how the initial atomic conditions and parameters of both fields change the number of peaks and dark lines of spontaneous emission spectra. Furthermore, we also show how the spontaneous emission spectrum is modified by Doppler effects in the viewed direction. Our results have important references to the experimental observation of SGC in hot atomic vapors.     

Radiative Energy Shifts of an Accelerated Multilevel Atom Coupled to the Derivative of a Scalar Field

We study the energy level shifts of an accelerated multilevel atom in dipole coupling to the derivative of a quantum massless scalar field and separately calculate the contributions of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction to the shifts. It is found that, in contrast to the case of a monopole-like interaction, both the vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction contributions are changed by acceleration, and they all contain non-thermal correction terms. Our results suggest that the effect of acceleration on the energy shifts is dependent on the type of the interaction between the atom and the quantum field.     

Statistical properties of laser-induced fluorescence signals

We point out the influence of the different noise sources which occur in the detection of the fluorescence signal induced by a laser in an atomic beam. We have developed a theoretical model which takes account of the atomic shot noise, photon noise, laser-frequency noise and a partition noise linked to the imperfect detection of the fluorescence photons. The calculations have been performed for two- and three-level atomic systems. We detail the own contribution of each noise source and give some predictions concerning the value of the fluorescence signal to noise ratio. We determine predominance domains of each noise source which depend on the values of key parameters such as the atomic flux intensity and the laser spectral linewidth. We particularly show that the laser-frequency noise, which induces a coupling between the emission of fluorescence photons by various atoms, leads to a saturation of the S/N ratio for intense atomic fluxes. Moreover, we point out that the optical pumping process associated with a three level atomic system leads to an interesting laser-noise filtering effect.     

Controlled generation of single photons from a strongly coupled atom-cavity system

We propose a new method for the generation of single photons. Our scheme will lead to the emission of one photon into a single mode of the radiation field in response to a trigger event. This photon is emitted from an atom strongly coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity, and the trigger is a classical light pulse. The device combines cavity-QED with an adiabatic transfer technique. We simulate this process numerically and show that it is possible to control the temporal behaviour of the photon emission probability by the shape and the detuning of the trigger pulse. An extension of the scheme with a reloading mechanism will allow one to emit a bit-stream of photons at a given rate. Received: 7 July 1999 / Revised version: 3 September 1999 / Published online: 20 October 1999     

Radiative Energy Shifts of an Atom Coupled to the Derivative of a Scalar Field near a Reflecting Boundary

We study the radiative energy level shifts of a two-level atom in dipole coupling to the derivative of a massless scalar quantum field in a spacetime with a perfectly reflecting boundary, and calculate the contributions of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction to the level shift. It is found that the energy level shift of the excited state is an oscillating function of the atom＇s distance from the boundary and it can either be positive or negative, while that of the ground state is always positive. The most remarkable feature is that the energy level shift of the ground state behaves like 1/z^4 when the atom＇s distance from the boundary, z, is very large as compared to the transition wavelength of the atom, while it behaves like 1/z^3 when z is very small