Supplementary Information for Experimental Realization of a One-Atom Laser in the Regime of Strong Coupling

Although a number of theoretical treatments related to a one-atom laser have appeared in the literature [2–12], this prior work has not been specific to the parameter range of our experiment as reported in Ref. [1]. A principal purpose of this Supplementary Information is to present a brief description of the relationship of the operating regime of our experiment to that of more conventional laser systems. We establish this connection in Section II by way of a simplified four-state model that captures the essential features of the operation of our one-atom laser in a domain of strong coupling. Results from semiclassical and quantum solutions for a one-atom laser based upon this four-state model are presented in turn. This brief synopsis is elaborated in much more detail in Ref. [13], including an expanded model that incorporates the relevant Zeeman substructure for the Cesium atom (32 atomic states), two modes of the cavity with orthogonal polarizations, and a simple model to account for the polarization gradients of the Ω3,4 fields. Ref. [13] also provides a comparison of the results from quantum jumps simulations based upon this expanded model with the measurements in Figure 3 for n̄ versus normalized pump intensity x and in Figure 4 for the intensity correlation function g(2)(τ). The second purpose of this Supplementary Information is to present the actual coincidence data that are the basis of Fig. 4 in our manuscript [1], which we do in Section III. We also describe the procedure employed for obtaining the normalized intensity correlation function g(2)(τ) from these data.