Fluorescence into flat and structured radiation continua: An atomic density matrix without a master equation

Abstract

We investigate an atomic $Λ$-system with one transition coupled to a laser field and a flat continuum of vacuum modes and the other transition coupled to field modes near the edge of a photonic band gap. The system requires simultaneous treatment of Markovian and non-Markovian dissipation processes, but the photonic band gap continuum can not be eliminated within a density matrix treatment. Instead we propose a formalism based on Monte-Carlo wavefunctions, and we present results relevant to an experimental characterization of a structured continuum.

4 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett