Cavity-QED of a leaky planar resonator coupled to an atom and an input single-photon pulse

Abstract: In contrast to the free-space evolution of an atom governed by a multi-mode interaction with the surrounding electromagnetic vacuum, the evolution of a cavity-QED system can be characterized by just three parameters, (i) atom-cavity coupling strength g, (ii) cavity relaxation rate \kappa, and (iii) atomic decay rate into the non-cavity modes \gamma. In the case of an atom inserted into a planar resonator with an input beam coupled from the outside, it has been shown by Koshino [Phys. Rev. A 73, 053814 (2006)] that these three parameters are determined not only by the atom and cavity characteristics, but also by the spatial distribution of the input pulse. By an ab-initio treatment, we generalize the framework of Koshino and determine the cavity-QED parameters of a coupled system of atom, planar (leaky) resonator, and input single-photon pulse as functions of the lateral profile of the pulse and the length of resonator. We confirm that the atomic decay rate can be suppressed by tailoring appropriately the lateral profile of the pulse. Such an active suppression of atomic decay opens an attractive route towards an efficient quantum memory for long-term storage of an atomic qubit inside a planar resonator.