The Deterministic Generation of Photons by Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics

Cavity quantum electrodynamics allows the study of strong coupling between excited atoms and a single mode of a resonant cavity. As a consequence of the strong coupling the cavity field and the atom are entangled. The system thus provides important ingredients necessary for studies of quantum information processing. In addition the periodic exchange of a photon between atom and cavity can be studied. It thus represents the ideal system to investigate the Jaynes-Cummings model and to study a variety of phenomena related to the dynamics of the photon exchange such as collapse and revivals depending on the statistics of the photon field. Furthermore, it is an ideal system to study the quantum measurement process. The system leads to masers and lasers which sustain oscillations with less than one atom on average in the cavity and can, in addition, be used as a deterministic photon source. The setup allows to study in detail the conditions necessary to obtain nonclassical radiation, i.e. radiation with sub-Poissonian photon statistics and even photon number states; this is the case even when Poissonian pumping is used. This paper reviews thework on cavity quantum electrodynamics performed with the one-atom maser and with a single ion trap laser. We will start with the discussion of the one-atom maser. For a more detailed discussion of those experiments see also [1].