Stability of excited atoms in small cavities

الأصل · EN

We consider a system consisting of an atom in the approximation of a harmonic oscillator of frequency ω, coupled to the scalar potential inside a spherical reflecting cavity of radius R. We use dressed states introduced in a previous publication [Andion, Malbouisson and Matos Neto, J. Phys. A34, 3735 (2001)], which allow a non-perturbative unified description of the atom radiation process, in both cases, of a finite or an arbitrarily large cavity. We perform a study of the energy distribution in a small cavity, with the initial condition that the atom is in the first excited state and we conclude for the quasi-stability of the excited atom. For instance, for a frequency ω of the order ω 4.00× 10¹⁴/s (in the visible red), starting from the initial condition that the atom is in the first excited level, we find that for a cavity with diameter 2R 1.0× 10⁻⁶m, the probability that the atom be at any time still in the first excited level, will be of the order of 97%. For a typical microwave frequency ω 2,00× 10¹⁰/s we find stability in the first excited state also of the order of 97% for a cavity radius R 1.4× 10⁻²m.