Radiation pressure and coherent states of two-level atoms.

Abstract

Two sets of coherent states of a two-level atom are constructed by the displacement-operator technique from the choices of the ground and excited states as the extremal state. Particular forms of both of these sets of coherent states are minimum-uncertainty states. Radiation-induced forces are determined for a two-level atom prepared in such coherent states. In geneal, these forces are affected by the presence of a second atom. For a minimum-uncertainty state, the force on a two-level atom is inedpendent of the state of the field. The significance of the calculations is discussed in relation to the pure atomic state occurring in the midst of the ``collapse region'' of the atomic inversion in the Jaynes-Cummings model. The existence of such a pure state may provide a possible means of experimentally generating two-level atomic minimum-uncertainty states.