| Issue |
EPL
Volume 109, Number 2, January 2015
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 24003 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | Electromagnetism, Optics, Acoustics, Heat Transfer, Classical Mechanics, and Fluid Dynamics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/109/24003 | |
| Published online | 03 February 2015 | |
Casimir-Polder–induced Rabi oscillations
Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, UPMC-Sorbonnes Universités, CNRS, ENS-PSL Research Universities, Collège de France - 4, place Jussieu, F-75252 Paris, France
Received: 28 November 2014
Accepted: 14 January 2015
We show that the Casimir-Polder interaction may induce coherent oscillations between degenerate atomic states. We illustrate this effect by computing the Casimir-Polder–induced Rabi frequency on a 87Rb atom as it interacts with a reflecting surface. The atom oscillates between two Zeeman sublevels of its ground state undergoing a periodic exchange of angular momentum with the vacuum photons.
PACS: 42.50.Lc – Quantum fluctuations, quantum noise, and quantum jumps / 42.50.Ct – Quantum description of interaction of light and matter; related experiments / 37.90.+j – Other topics in mechanical control of atoms, molecules, and ions (restricted to new topics in section 37)
© EPLA, 2015
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