CLASSICAL CONTROL OF QUANTIZED-FIELDS - CAVITY QED AND THE PHOTON PISTOL

By using the double-lambda configuration of energy levels and three cl assical fields, an atom or ion in a high-Q resonant cavity can be mani pulated to create a single-mode quantum state in the cavity that is an arbitrary combination of Pock states for that mode. The same principl es of operation can be applied to a cavity with much lower Q in order to produce a ''photon pistol'', a device that ''shoots'' one and only one photon when a trigger is pulled, and emits no photons at other tim es.