Coherent scattering of an atom in the field of a standing wave under conditions of initial quantum correlation of subsystems

Abstract

Coherent scattering of a two-level atom in the field of a quantized standing wave of a micromaser is considered under conditions of initial quantum correlation between the atom and the field. Such a correlation can be produced by a broadband parametric source. The interaction leading to scattering of the atom from the nonuniform field occurs in the dispersion limit or in the wing of the absorption line of the atom. Apart from the quantized field, the atom simultaneously interacts with two classical counterpropagating waves with different frequencies, which are acting in the plane perpendicular to the atom’s propagation velocity and to the wavevector of the standing wave. Joint action of the quantized field and two classical waves induces effective two-photon and Raman resonance interaction on the working transition. The effective Hamiltonian of the interaction is derived using the unitary transformation method developed for a moving atom. A strong effect is detected, which makes it possible to distinguish the correlated initial state of the atom and the field in the scattering of atom from the state of independent systems. For all three waves, scattering is not observed when systems with quantum correlation are prepared using a high-intensity parametric source. Conversely, when the atom interacts only with the nonuniform field of the standing wave, scattering is not observed in the case of the initial factorized state.