Investigations are carried out on two aspects of atom-cavity emission. One research area will be the resonance fluorescence of a single atom coupled to a degenerate optical resonator mode. Such a system exhibits two resonant peaks, one near the free- space atomic resonance frequency and a second near the empty- cavity frequency. These peaks evolve into the normal mode splitting when the cavity frequency and the atom frequency coincide. A detailed study of this behavior, both on and off resonance, will provide information on micro-dynamical quantum processes. Effects of stimulated emission and absorption will also be studied. A second area of study will be the emission of an atom-cavity system in which the atom (or atoms) is prepared in an inverted state. The gain for such a system can be large, and emission rates and linewidths will be studied to observe the transition from enhanced spontaneous emission to stimulated emission ("atom-cavity laser"). Photon statistics will also be studied.
