Effect of the state of a quantized electromagnetic field on the interaction with an atom with allowance for the continuum

This paper studies the effect of a transition into the continuous spectrum on the “collapse” and “revival” of population oscillations in an atom. It is shown that at large values of the mean number of photons in a radiation field and in conditions of weak ionization the phenomena of collapse and revival can still be observed, but the amplitude of population oscillations decreases exponentially because of the damping of the level. The interaction of a quantized electromagnetic field with a Λ system of an atom when one state is continuous is examined. Expressions are derived for the probability of “survival” of the atom when the quantized field was initially in a state with a given number of photons and when it was in a coherent state. An approximate calculation of the sum in averaging over the photon number distribution in the case of a coherent field leads to expressions for the probabilities of survival of the atom that transform into expressions, as the mean number of photons tends to infinity, corresponding to the case of a field in the representation of a fixed number of photons. The possibility of a stable state existing in a coherent quantized field is examined. It is found that for a Λ system the condition for the existence of a stable state remains valid in the case of a coherent state of the field when the photon number is large. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 113, 1193–1205 (April 1998)