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When a one-atom maser is operated in the standard way -- excited, resonant two-level atoms traverse the resonator at random times -- the emerging atoms are entangled with the cavity field. As a consequence, the results of measurements on different atoms tend to be correlated. We show that truly non-classical correlations can be found between two successive atoms by studying the properties of the reduced state of such an atom pair. In particular, we calculate its degree of separability and find parameter ranges in which it is markedly less than unity., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure

Motivated by a recent experiment [J. Eschner {\it et al.}, Nature {\bf 413}, 495 (2001)], we now present a theoretical study on the fluorescence of an atom in front of a mirror. On the assumption that the presence of the distant mirror and a lens imposes boundary conditions on the electric field in a plane close to the atom, we derive the intensities of the emitted light as a function of an effective atom-mirror distance. The results obtained are in good agreement with the experimental findings., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, revised version, references added

Two-qubit logical gates are proposed on the basis of two atoms trapped in a cavity setup. Losses in the interaction by spontaneous transitions are efficiently suppressed by employing adiabatic transitions and the Zeno effect. Dynamical and geometrical conditional phase gates are suggested. This method provides fidelity and a success rate of its gates very close to unity. Hence, it is suitable for performing quantum computation., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, REVTEX, second part modified, typos corrected

We demonstrate experimentally the generation of square and hexagonal lattices of optical vortices and reveal their propagation in a saturable nonlinear medium. If the topological charges of the vortices are of the same sign the lattice exhibit rotation, while if alternative, we observe stable propagation of the structures. In the nonlinear medium the lattices induce periodic modulation of the refractive index. Diffraction of a probe beam by this nonlinearity-induced periodic structure is observed., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted JOSA B

We show that the unitary evolution of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a two-level system can be undone by a suitable manipulation of the two-level system -- more specifically: by a quasi-instantaneous phase change. This enables us to isolate the dissipative evolution to which the oscillator may be exposed in addition. With this method we study the decoherence of a photon mode in cavity QED, and that of the quantized harmonic motion of trapped ions. We comment on the relation to spin echoes and multi-path interferometry., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; submitted to Physical Review A as a Rapid Communication

In a recent publication Luis and Sanchez-Soto arrive at the conclusion that complementarity is universally enforced by random classical phase kicks. We disagree. One could just as well argue that quantum entanglement is the universal mechanism. Both claims of universality are unjustified, however., Comment: 4 pages