Atomic spin squeezing in an optical cavity

Abstract

We consider squeezing of one component of the collective spin vector of an atomic ensemble inside an optical cavity. The atoms interact with a cavity mode, and the squeezing is obtained by probing the state of the light field that is transmitted through the cavity. Starting from the stochastic master equation, we derive the time evolution of the state of the atoms and the cavity field, and we compute expectation values and variances of the atomic spin components and the quadratures of the cavity mode. The performance of the setup is compared to spin squeezing of atoms by probing of a light field transmitted only once through the sample.