Abstract

The one-atom maser or micromaser^[1] can be described theoretically by a combination of the Jaynes-Cummings model^[2] and a master equation to allow for damping of the cavity field.^[3] If the maser is pumped with fully inverted atoms, no field phase is preferred and one can observe only incoherent phenomena such as photon statistics of the cavity field.^[4] Pumping the cavity with atoms that are in a coherent superposition of the upper and lower maser levels leads to states in which the symmetry with respect to phase is broken.^[5] The quantum cavity field may thus be phase locked to a classical field which provides the coherent superposition of the pumping atoms.

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