Anomalous resonance fluorescence from an atom in a cavity with injected squeezed vacuum.

Abstract

As a realistic system for observing the distinctive features of the interaction of squeezed light with atoms, we consider a single, coherently driven, two-level atom in a resonant optical cavity coupled to a broadband squeezed vacuum field. In the bad cavity limit we derive equations of motion for the atomic operators that are identical to those for the free-space situation, except for having modified parameters. We focus our attention on the resonance fluorescence from this system and show that, in the above limit, many of the unusual spectral features previously reported for the free atom situation persist. We also confirm the link between these anomalous spectra and the collapse of an atom into a pure state. The cavity parameter values needed to verify some of these interesting effects appear to be within the range of present day technology. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.