On the coherent effect of vacuum fluctuations on driven atoms

TL;DR

This paper investigates how vacuum fluctuations, via the Casimir-Polder interaction, coherently influence the Rabi oscillations of driven atoms, revealing shifts in oscillation frequencies depending on atomic configurations.

Contribution

It demonstrates the coherent effects of vacuum fluctuations on atomic Rabi oscillations, highlighting non-additive and renormalization effects in different atomic configurations.

Findings

Shifts in Rabi frequency due to non-additive level shifts in lambda-configuration.

Effective renormalization of laser interaction causes Rabi frequency shifts in ladder-configuration.

Vacuum fluctuations can coherently modify atomic oscillation dynamics.

Abstract

We study the coherent effect of the Casimir-Polder interaction on the oscillations of two-photon driven atoms. We find that, for oscillations between two degenerate states in lambda-configuration, shifts on the Rabi frequency may be induced by non-additive level shifts. For oscillations between two Rydberg states in ladder-configuration, shifts on the Rabi frequency may be induced by the effective renormalization of the laser interaction.