Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 580–583 (1992)Wave-function approach to dissipative processes in quantum opticsReceived 15 October 1991; published in the issue dated 3 February 1992 A novel treatment of dissipation of energy from a ‘‘small’’ quantum system to a reservoir is presented. We replace the usual master equation for the small-system density matrix by a wave-function evolution including a stochastic element. This wave-function approach provides new insight and it allows calculations on problems which would otherwise be exceedingly complicated. The approach is applied here to a two- or three-level atom coupled to a laser field and to the vacuum modes of the quantized electromagnetic field. © 1992 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.68.580
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.68.580
PACS:
42.50.-p, 32.80.-t
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