On the interaction of a single-photon wave packet with an excited atom

Abstract

The interaction of a single-photon wave packet with an initially excited two-level atom in free space is studied in semiclassical and quantum approaches. It is shown that the final state of the field does not contain doubly occupied modes. The process of the atom's transition to the ground state may be accelerated, decelerated or even reversed by the incoming photon, depending on parameters. The spectrum of emitted radiation is close to the sum of the spectrum of the incoming single-photon wave packet and the natural line shape, with small and complicated deviations.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure