Controlling Tunneling of Atoms Through aHigh-Quality Cavity Via an External Driving Field

Abstract

In high quality micromaser cavities, we investigate the tunnelling and traversal of ultra-cold A-type three-level atoms. We specifically discuss how a coherent driving field affects the tunnelling atoms' traversal behaviour. Phase time, which is shown to be a suitable measure of atoms' transit time through a cavity, is affected by driving induced atomic coherence. For example, atomic coherence leads to negative phase times for atomic transmission on both the excited and ground levels. The phase tunnelling time also exhibits alternate subclassical and superclassical traversal tendencies depending on the driving field value as atomic momentum increases.