Abstract
The interplay of the concepts of complementarity and interference in the time-energy domain are studied. In particular, we theoretically investigate the fluorescence light from a to transition that is driven by a monochromatic laser field. We find that the spectrum of resonance fluorescence exhibits a signature of vacuum-mediated interference effects, whereas the total intensity is not affected by interference. We demonstrate that this result is a consequence of the principle of complementarity, applied to time and energy. Since the considered level scheme can be found, e.g., in ions, our model system turns out to be an ideal candidate to provide evidence for as yet experimentally unconfirmed vacuum-induced atomic coherences.
- Received 13 September 2005
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.100403
©2006 American Physical Society