Jaynes-Cummings model with atomic position distribution.

Abstract

The position as well as the width of the atomic wave packet passing through an optical cavity may affect the matter-field interaction. As a result, the internal dynamics of a two-level atom, such as the Rabi oscillations or the collapse and revival phenomenon, may be strongly modified with respect to the standard Jaynes-Cummings model. In particular, for a sufficiently large spread of the atomic position, the atomic population inversion displays the characteristic ringing behavior of the Bessel function ${\mathit{J}}_{0}$ differently from the usual full Rabi oscillation.