A quantum-mechanical master equation treatment of the dynamical Stark effect

Abstract

The description begins with an operator master equation for the atom plus incident field. Reduced atomic matrix elements are derived for arbitrary field strengths. First- and second-order correlation functions in the scattered field are also obtained and discussed in relation to the scattered spectrum and intensity-fluctuation measurements. This formalism has the appealing feature that all information is readily available from the one set of four coupled equations. The deficiencies in both the one-photon approximation and the semiclassical perspective are established in a natural and transparent fashion.