Cavity-QED interactions of two correlated atoms

TL;DR

This paper studies the resonant van der Waals interactions between two correlated atoms within a cavity QED framework, deriving general force expressions and demonstrating their behavior in different coupling regimes.

Contribution

It extends the Jaynes-Cummings model to analyze van der Waals forces between correlated atoms in a cavity, including position dependence and weak coupling limits.

Findings

Derived general van der Waals force expressions for correlated atoms.

Showed position-dependent Rabi oscillations in a planar cavity.

Reproduced perturbative results in the weak coupling limit.

Abstract

We consider the resonant van der Waals interaction between two correlated identical two-level atoms (at least one of which being excited) within the framework of macroscopic cavity quantum electrodynamics in linear, dispersing and absorbing media. The interaction of both atoms with the body-assisted electromagnetic field of the cavity is assumed to be strong. Our time-independent evaluation is based on an extended Jaynes-Cummings model. For a system prepared in a superposition of its dressed states, we derive the general form of the van der Waals forces, using a Lorentzian single mode approximation. We demonstrate the applicability of this approach by considering the case of a planar cavity and showing the position-dependence of Rabi oscillations. We also show that in the limiting case of weak coupling, our results reproduce the perturbative ones, for the case where the field is initially in vacuum state while the atomic state is in a superposition of two correlated states sharing one excitation.