Unified description of inhomogeneities, dissipation and transport in quantum light–atom interfaces
Marco Koschorreck, Morgan W. Mitchell · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics · 2009
We show how a variety of real-world effects can be incorporated into continuous-variable models of atom-light interfaces within a single, consistent framework.The approach is similar to that of Madsen and Mølmer (2004 Phys.Rev. A 70 052324), but uses physical, not canonical, variables.We show how to include spatial and temporal inhomogeneities, external fields, coherent atom-light interactions, loss, decoherence, atomic transport and projective measurements within a covariance-matrix description.The model can be applied to many experimental situations ranging from room temperature vapour cells to sub-mK atomic clouds.As first applications, we calculate the effect of detector time resolution, spatial inhomogeneities and atomic motion on the spin squeezing dynamics of rubidium 87 on the D 2 transition.