Abstract

There is a growing interest in micromasers. Because of the advantage of Rydberg atoms and of superconducting microwave cavities with extremely high Q factors, micromasers¹ have become a realistic theoretical test of the foundation of quantum optics. For many years, theorists have analyzed various aspects of the Jaynes-Cummings model of a single atom interacting with a single mode of the electromagnetic field.² The predictions of these theories can now be studied experimentally in a micromaser. Usually, in the theory of micromasers,³ authors consider only that a micromaser consists of a single-mode high-Q resonator in which a monoeuergetic beam of exited two-level atoms is injected at such a low flux that, at most, one atom at a time is present inside the cavity. However, it is interesting to consider the situation in which two atoms are present at the same time in the micromaser cavity In this situation, the cooperative effects of two isolated atoms interacting through the single-mode quantized maser field can be studied in detail. In this paper a master equation for quantized field in the micromaser in which two atoms at a time enter the cavity has been derived.

© 1991 Optical Society of America