Quantum properties of field modes in trilinear optical processes

Abstract

We consider a trilinear Hamiltonian in boson operators describing various physical processes such as frequency conversion, Raman or Brillouin scattering, or the interaction of N two-level atoms with a single-mode radiation field. Due to the fact that two independent integrals of motion can be found, the solution of the dynamics of the system is reduced to the diagonalization of a finite matrix (as was already shown by Walls and Barakat [Phys. Rev. A 1, 446 (1970)]). Performing a numerical diagonalization, we analyze the statistical properties of the field modes (sub-Poissonian statistics, anticorrelation, squeezing). We also pay attention to the appearance of collapses and revivals in the mean photon number of the modes. The relation of this model to the model of two coupled modes with an intensity-dependent coupling constant is pointed out.