STATE PREPARATION VIA QUANTUM COHERENCE AND CONTINUOUS MEASUREMENT

The theory of continuous measurement is generalized so as to be applic able to a two-mode radiation field whose properties are monitored by u sing a LAMBDA system with initial coherence between two ground states. The two-mode system is shown to offer the possibility of generating a number of new quantum states. Quantum statistics of the field followi ng continuous measurements is calculated. Results for the phase distri bution, quasiprobability distribution, and the photon-number distribut ion of the resulting field are also presented.