Spectral properties of a thresholdless dressed-atom laser

Abstract

We investigate spectral properties of the atomic fluorescence and the output field of the cavity-mode of a single-atom dressed-state laser in a photonic crystal. We pay particular attention to the behavior of the spectra in the presence of the frequency dependent reservoir and search for signatures of the thresholdless lasing. Although the thresholdless behavior has been predicted by analyzing the photon statistics of the cavity field, we find that the threshold behavior still exists in the spectrum of the cavity field. We find that the structure of cavity field spectrum depends strongly on the range of the pumping rate. For low pumping rates, the spectrum is not monochromatic, it is composed of a set of discrete lines revealing the discrete (quantum) structure of the combined dressed-atom plus the cavity field system. We find that for a certain value of the pumping rate, the multi-peak structure converts into a single very narrow line centered at the cavity field frequency. A physical explanation of the behavior of the spectra is provided in terms of dressed states of the system.