Past exam of the laser science and quantum information processing course of the University of Oxford / 2018 / 3 / e

For $\bar{n}=|z{|}^2\gg 1$, the Poisson distribution of photon number has width $\sqrt{\bar{n}}\ll \bar{n}$. Initially the atom therefore undergoes nearly classical Rabi oscillations at angular frequency approximately $2g\sqrt{\bar{n}}$. However, the atomic inversion is a sum over slightly different frequencies:The components dephase, causing collapse of the visible Rabi oscillations on a time scale of order $1/g$; a Gaussian photon-number approximation gives an initial envelope approximately $e^{-g^2{t}^2/2}$. Their discrete phases later rephase, giving revivals nearThe revival estimate follows by requiring the phase difference of neighbouring photon-number components to advance by $2\pi$. These Jaynes-Cummings collapse and revival effects arise from atom-field entanglement and photon-number discreteness. Large amplitude makes the initial classical description accurate over many Rabi periods, but does not eliminate quantum collapse and revival at all later times.