Inhibition of atomic phase decays by squeezed light in a microscopic Fabry-Pérot cavity

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Abstract
The inhibition of atomic phase decays by squeezed light, as first predicted by Gardiner [Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 1917 (1986)], has yet to be confirmed experimentally. A major obstacle to such an experiment is the production of an effective squeezed-vacuum–atom coupling, so that the atom interacts only with squeezed modes of the radiation field. In this paper we propose the use of a microscopic plane-mirror Fabry-Pérot cavity to effect a strong selection of modes coupling to the atom. It is shown that a significant reduction in fluctuations experienced by the atom can be achieved in one quadrature, with an input squeezed beam of modest angular dimensions, provided that the phase (and to lesser extent the amplitude) characteristics of the input beam are suitably matched to the cavity.