Photon, quantum and collective, effects from rydberg atoms in cavities

Abstract

I review some theories of the interaction ofN Rydberg atoms interacting collectively with radiation in microwave cavities. The radiation may be incoherent (black body) radiation or it may be coherent. In the former case theories of the steady state inversion and of the superradiance from initially inverted atoms in low-Q cavities agree well with experimental observations. In the latter case in low-Q cavities ‘phase transitions’ of both first and second order types are predicted and should be observable by monitoring the output of an atomic beam by an atomic ionisation detector. The first order transition which occurs at opposite detunings of the cavity and atoms from the frequency of the coherent driving field is of “optically” bistable type but hysteresis is suppressed by quantum fluctuations which can be large in the cavity field close to the transition. I also review a theory of the spectra from single atoms in cavities ofarbitrary Q containing a few microwave photons. A transition from a single peaked Lorentzian spectrum at low-Q to a double-peaked spectrum forQ≃10⁶ is predicted and peaks representing one or more photon transitions of the Jaynes-Cummings model are also expected to be observable at these or largerQ values. The collective theories are all based onN atom Dicke type models driven by the coherent or incoherent field. Substantial squeezing of the fluorescent radiation field from these Dicke models is also predicted and may be observable with Rydberg atoms.