Rabi oscillations in a two-level atom moving in an open resonator with spherical mirrors

The dynamics of interaction of an electromagnetic field with a two-level atom uniformly moving in an open resonator is analysed. The probability of the radiative transition of an excited atom to a lower state is studied as a function of the slope of its trajectory relative to the resonator axis and of the detuning of the atomic transition frequency from the resonator mode frequency. The study was performed in the case of strong coupling by the method of dressed states. The complicated dependences of the transition probability on the detuning and the slope of the atomic trajectory are analysed for small angles (~1°) for typical experimental conditions. It is shown that under certain conditions, a field can be efficiently excited in the resonator by atoms whose transition frequency considerably differs from the field-mode frequency when the detuning is not close to the Doppler shift.