Multi-Frequency Atom-Photon Interactions

Abstract

We present a formalism that enables the analytic calculation of the interaction of a spin-half particle with a polychromatic electromagnetic field. This powerful new approach provides a clear physical picture even for cases with highly degenerate energy levels, which are complicated to interpret in the standard dressed-atom picture. Typically semi-classical methods are used for such problems (leading to equations that are solved by Floquet theory). Our formalism is derived from quantum electrodynamics and thus is more widely applicable. In particular it makes accessible the intermediate regime between quantum and semi-classical dynamics. We give examples of the application to multi-frequency multi-photon processes in strong fields by deriving the Hamiltonians of such systems, and also to the dynamics of weak fields at long times for which semi-classical methods are insufficient.