Spontaneous emission from a two--level atom tunneling in a double--well potential

Abstract

We study a two-level atom in a double--well potential coupled to a continuum of electromagnetic modes (black body radiation in three dimensions at zero absolute temperature). Internal and external degrees of the atom couple due to recoil during emission of a photon. We provide a full analysis of the problem in the long wavelengths limit up to the border of the Lamb-Dicke regime, including a study of the internal dynamics of the atom (spontaneous emission), the tunneling motion, and the electric field of the emitted photon. The tunneling process itself may or may not decohere depending on the wavelength corresponding to the internal transition compared to the distance between the two wells of the external potential, as well as on the spontaneous emission rate compared to the tunneling frequency. Interference fringes appear in the emitted light from a tunneling atom, or an atom in a stationary coherent superposition of its center--of--mass motion, if the wavelength is comparable to the well separation, but only if the external state of the atom is post-selected.

24 pages, 4 figures; improved discussion on the limitations of the theory

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Tutorial on the analytical calculation of optical forces on spherical particles in optical tweezers
• Cooperative spontaneous emission from indistinguishable atoms in arbitrary motional quantum states
• Master equation for collective spontaneous emission with quantized atomic motion
• Coherent control of atomic tunneling
• Quantum tunneling of composite object coupled with quantized radiation field
• Interference of cavity light by a single atom acting as a double slit
• Quantum signatures and semiclassical limitations in the transmission of Fock states