Control of atomic state decay in cavities and microspheres

Abstract

Novel methods are discussed for the state control of atoms coupled to single-mode and multi-mode cavities and microspheres. (1) Excitation decay control: The quantum Zeno effect, i.e. inhibition of spontaneous decay by frequent measurements, is observable in high-Q cavities and microspheres using a sequence of evolution-interrupting pulses or randomly-modulated CW fields. By contrast, in 'bad' cavities or open space, frequent measurements can only accelerate the decay, causing the anti-Zeno effect. (2) Location-dependent interference of decay channels: Control of two metastable states is feasible via resonant single-photon absorption to an intermediate state, by engineering spontaneous emission in a multimode cavity. (3) Decoherence control by conditionally interfering parallel evolutions: An arbitrary internal state of an atomic wavepacket can be protected from decoherence by interference of its interactions with the cavity over many different time intervals in parallel, followed by the detection of appropriate atomic-momentum observables. The arsenal of control methods described above can advance the state-of-the-art of quantum information storage and manipulation in cavities.