Measurement of the phase diffusion dynamics in the micromaser

摘要

We propose a realistic scheme for measuring the micromaser linewidth bymonitoring the phase diffusion dynamics of the cavity field. Our strategyconsists in exciting an initial coherent state with the same photon numberdistribution as the micromaser steady-state field, singling out a purelydiffusive process in the system dynamics. After the injection of acounter-field, measurements of the population statistics of a probe atom allowus to derive the micromaser linewidth. Our proposal aims at solving a classicand relevant decoherence problem in cavity quantum electrodynamics, allowing toestablish experimentally the distinctive features appearing in the micromaserspectrum due to the discreteness of the electromagnetic field.