Removal of single-atom optical bistability by quantum fluctuations

The dynamics of the quantum-statistical properties of the radiation of an a tom in a cavity interacting with an external coherent field is investigated . A high level of quantum fluctuations of the field in the cavity is shown to destroy optical bistability in the multiatom case. Photon-number fluctua tions and the spectral dispersion of the canonically conjugate quadratures of the field inside and outside a cavity are calculated. It is found that i n contrast to the multiatom case quadrature squeezing and squeezing of the radiation intensity of a single atom are negligible inside and outside the cavity. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7761(99)00706-4].