SPECTROSCOPY OF STRONGLY COUPLED ATOM-CAVITY SYSTEMS - A TOPICAL REVIEW

A new nonperturbative regime of radiation-matter interaction is examin ed by considering atoms interacting with fields in exceptionally high quality cavities. A general framework for the study of such systems is presented. The new features that arise from the strong coupling to th e cavity mode are thoroughly analysed and the underlying physics and e xperiments are reviewed. The nonlinear processes are shown to be very sensitive to the sample size.