Controlling tunneling of ultracold three-level atoms through a two-photon mazer cavity via the atom-field detuning

Abstract

We study the tunneling and traversal of ultracold three-level atoms through a high- Q microwave cavity. In particular, we analyzed effects of the atom-field detuning on the tunneling time of ultracold atoms through a two-photon mazer cavity. Here, photons are emitted and absorbed in pairs; therefore, the nature of the interaction is quite different from a single photon mazer. It is found that when an appropriate detuning is introduced, one may obtain alternate positive and negative values of the phase time of tunneling with increasing centre-of-mass energies of the incident atoms. Further, phase time can be switched between the sub- and super-classical characters, and its peak value may be smartly controlled by adjusting the atom-field detuning. More interestingly, we find that phase time rigorously depends on the internal degree of freedom of the interacting atoms, i.e. the final state in which the atoms are exiting the cavity.