Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 160, 217-224 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2008-00725-8

Micromaser line broadening without photon exchange

Institut für Physik, Universität Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

Corresponding author: henkel@uni-potsdam.de

Abstract

We perform a calculation of the linewidth of a micromaser, using the master equation and the quantum regression approach. A `dephasing' contribution is identified from pumping processes that conserve the photon number and do not appear in the photon statistics. We work out examples for a single-atom maser with a precisely controlled coupling and for a laser where the interaction time is broadly distributed. In the latter case, we also assess the convergence of a recently developed uniform Lindblad approximation to the master equation; it is relatively slow.