Quantum collapses and revivals in a nonlinear Jaynes-Cummings model

Abstract

We investigate the atomic inversion dynamics when a multilevel atom interacts with a two-mode quantized radiation field in a Raman-type process. By utilizing the rotating-wave approximation and adiabatically eliminating all but two of the atomic levels, we derive a nonlinear-interaction Hamiltonian for this system. Working in the Schrödinger picture, we obtain numerical results that depend on the width and average photon number of the field statistics. Varying these photon statistics allows us to uncover secondary revivals that arise due to the complicated double sum over the two field modes that appear in the solutions. The origin of this phenomenon is described analytically.