Response of a two-level atom to a classical field and a quantized cavity field of different frequencies
C. K. Law, Joseph H. Eberly · Physical Review A · 1991
We consider a two-level atom interacting simultaneously with a classically described cw laser field and a quantized cavity field. The classical field is assumed strong, and the cavity field is regarded as a quantum probe of its dressed states. The two fields have different frequencies and amplitudes, but we show that an effective time-independent Hamiltonian can be obtained via two rotating-frame transformations. There is a different effective Hamiltonian in each of an infinite sequence of ``probe resonance zones'' associated with the subharmonic Rabi sidebands of the dressed states. In the mth zone, the Hamiltonian has the same form as the m-photon Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian. We consider both time-dependent and time-averaged atomic response and make comparisons with recent findings in the case that both fields are fully classical.