Photon emission from a two-level atom moving in a cavity

The interaction of a two-level atom uniformly moving along a classical trajectory with a high-Q cavity quantum mode is analyzed. The dressed-state method is used to derive a recurrence formula for the transition probability of the atom with photon emission; the temporal dynamics of this probability qualitatively depends on the Doppler shift of the atomic transition frequency, on the Rabi frequency of the atom-field system, and on the detuning of the atomic transition frequency from the field mode frequency. The emission dynamics of a moving atom is very sensitive to the detuning. Rabi-type oscillations with a frequency equal to the Doppler shift can arise under certain conditions. At resonance, the emission probability of a moving atom can considerably exceed the emission probability of an atom at rest. A plane-parallel-mirror cavity and a confocal spherical-mirror cavity are considered. It is shown that the peculiarities of Doppler-Rabi oscillations must be taken into account in micromaser theory.