Theory of the nondegenerate two-photon micromaser
Paulo A. Maia Neto, L. Davidovich, J. M. Raimond · Physical Review A · 1991
We present the theory of a microscopic maser operating on a nondegenerate two-photon transition between two states of same parity. We start from a three-level Hamiltonian, and discuss both the one-photon resonant cascade and the two-photon regime, when the intermediate state is far off resonance. In the semiclassical limit, we derive rate equations for the field intensities and get the corresponding steady-state values. The vacuum is stable in the two-photon regime but becomes unstable for zero detuning (a clear signature of a one-photon process). Solutions displaying true two-photon operation (intermediate state unpopulated) even with zero detuning are displayed. Using the full quantum density-matrix approach, we derive a master equation for the field and discuss both operating regimes, showing that the spontaneous emission may turn the vacuum unstable in the two-photon case. In the off-resonance two-photon regime, there is a strong correlation between the fluctuations of the intensities of the two modes. We find a squeezing factor of 50% for the fluctuations in the difference of intensities.