Phase diffusion and continuous quantum measurements in the micromaser

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Abstract
We propose a method to investigate the phase dynamics of the radiation field of a micromaser in steady-state operation. The phase-diffusion information is deduced from the population statistics of the atoms leaving a classical coherent field placed after the micromaser cavity. By using the classical coherent field, one gains an additional degree of freedom which allows one to probe the polarization component of the atomic dipole which is directly correlated to the cavity-field amplitude. As an illustration we present the results of a computer experiment, modeling the complete dynamics of the proposed experiment.