Abstract

We report on results concerning the nonlinear dynamics of a coherently driven mesoscopic micromaser [1,2]. In this system, a monokinetic beam of two-level Rydberg atoms propagates through a high-Q microwave cavity, interacting with a single resonator mode and a coherent injected signal. The atoms enter the cavity in the lower level, hence the system operates as a nonlinear absorber. The atomic density is high enough for a semiclassical description in terms of integro-differential Maxwell-Bloch equations with atomic propagation. The atomic linewidth is dominated by transit broadening, so that atomic relaxations can be neglected, and the Rabi cycling induces multistable effects at steady-state. Here, Hopf bifurcations can occur on upper branches of the stationary diagram of intracavity versus driving field amplitude [3].

© 1996 IEEE