Two-atom dark states in electromagnetic cavities

G. J. Yang, O. Zobay, P. Meystre

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

The center-of-mass motion of two two-level atoms coupled to a single damped mode of an electromagnetic resonator is investigated. For the case of one atom being initially excited and the cavity mode in the vacuum state, it is shown that the atomic time evolution is dominated by the appearance of dark states. These states, in which the initial excitation is stored in the internal atomic degrees of freedom and the atoms become quantum mechanically entangled, are almost immune against photon loss from the cavity. Various properties of the dark states within and beyond the Raman-Nath approximation of atom optics are worked out.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4012-4020
Number of pages9
JournalPhysical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Volume59
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1999

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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