Effect of finite atomic lifetimes on the generation of nonclassical states in micromasers.

Abstract

We study the effect of finite atomic lifetimes on a micromaser from temporal evolution. A stream of finite-lifetime two-level atoms is injected inside a cavity in a coherent superposition of their upper and lower levels. We study the effect of the atomic decay on the generation of quasipure states of the inner electromagnetic field. First, we study the stationary photon number distribution when the atoms are injected in their upper level. We compare our results with previous calculations by Zhu, Wang, and Fearn [Phys. Rev. A 44, 737 (1991)]. We find that quasinumber states can be generated for a long time, in a range of physical parameters that allows their experimental realization. Second, we investigate the effect of finite atomic lifetimes on the generation of cotangent states, and we study their squeezing properties.