Tunneling and traversal of ultracold three-level atoms through vacuum-induced potentials

Abstract

The passage of ultracold three-level atoms through the potential induced by the vacuum cavity mode is discussed using cascade atomic configuration. We study the tunneling or traversal time of the ultracold atoms via a bimodal high-$Q$ cavity. It is found that the phase time, which may be considered as a measure for the time required to traverse the cavity, exhibits superclassical and subclassical behaviors. Further, the dark states and interference effects in cascade atomic configuration may influence the passage time of the atom through the cavity.