Abstract

Photon antibunching has been predicted at weak intensities along the lower branch in optical bistability. Existing theories assume large atomic numbers to justify their linearized analysis. From such a theory photon antibunching in absorptive bistability is given for weak intensities by where C is the bistability parameter, μ is the ratio of atomic and cavity decay times, and N is the number of atoms. Clearly this result becomes invalid as the system size is reduced to the limit of a single atom; then g⁽²⁾ (0) is negative for moderate values of C. I calculate g⁽²⁾ (0) for the transmitted light from an optical cavity containing a single atom, where the injected field, the atom, and the cavity are all resonant.

© 1985 Optical Society of America