Spontaneous dressed-state polarization in the strong driving regime of cavity QED

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates spontaneous dressed-state polarization in cavity QED by measuring phase noise induced by a single atom in a strongly driven cavity, revealing novel quantum stochastic behavior.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental observation of spontaneous dressed-state polarization in the strong driving regime of cavity QED.

Findings

Detection of excess phase noise correlated with atom-induced effects

Confirmation of long-predicted spontaneous dressed-state polarization

Observation of quantum stochastic behavior in a strongly driven atom-cavity system

Abstract

We utilize high-bandwidth phase quadrature homodyne measurement of the light transmitted through a Fabry-Perot cavity, driven strongly and on resonance, to detect excess phase noise induced by a single intracavity atom. We analyze the correlation properties and driving-strength dependence of the atom-induced phase noise to establish that it corresponds to the long-predicted phenomenon of spontaneous dressed-state polarization. Our experiment thus provides a demonstration of cavity quantum electrodynamics in the strong driving regime, in which one atom interacts strongly with a many-photon cavity field to produce novel quantum stochastic behavior.