Effect of cavity leakage on the emission and absorption of radiation from an atom in a cavity, with the cavity mode in vacuum, is studied exactly by solving density-matrix equations and by evaluating the relevant two-time quantum-mechanical correlation functions. Analytic expressions for the widths and position of various spectral lines are given. Widths are found to depend on detuning. Manifestation of the vacuum-field Rabi oscillations on different types of spectra are discussed. Vacuum-field Rabi oscillations are also apparent in the coherent scattering of external radiation from the cavity.

• Received 16 July 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.33.1757