ATOM BINDING AND REFLECTION BY SPATIALLY INHOMOGENEOUS SPONTANEOUS EMISSION

Remarkable quantum effects are predicted for an initially excited two- level wave packet incident on a broadband vacuum-field reservoir with sharp spatial boundaries: (a) reflection of the excited wave packet fr om the boundary (skin effect); (b) transient three-dimensional binding of the decayed wave packet to the boundary by photons carrying more e nergy than the incident wave packet. These effects are realizable for cold atoms in cavities where excitation decay is nearly exponential bu t strongly enhanced.