Ultimate Statistical Physics: fluorescence of a single atom

Abstract

We discuss the statistics of emission of photons by a single atom or ion illuminated by a laser beam at the frequency of quasi-resonance between two energy levels, a situation that corresponds to real experiments. We extend this to the case of two laser beams resonant with the energy differences between two excited levels and the ground state (three level atom in V-configuration). We use a novel approach of this type of problem by considering Kolmogorov equation for the probability distribution of the atomic state which takes into account first the deterministic evolution of this state under the effect of the incoming laser beam and the random emission of photons during the spontaneous decay of the excited state(s) to the ground state. This approach yields solvable equations in the two level atom case. For the three level atom case we set the problem and define clearly its frame. The results obtained are valid both in the opposite limits of rare and of frequent spontaneous decay, compared to the period of the optical Rabi oscillations due to the interaction between the resonant excitation and the atomic levels. Our theory gives access to various statistical properties of the fluorescence light, including one showing that its fluctuations in time are not invariants under time reversal. This result puts in evidence the fundamentally irreversible character of quantum measurements, represented here by the emission of photons of fluorescence.