Time evolution and squeezing of the field amplitude in cavity QED

We present the conditional time evolution of the electromagnetic field produced by a cavity QED system in the strongly coupled regime. We obtain the conditional evolution through an intensity–amplitude correlation function that measures the time evolution of the field after the detection of a photon. A connection exists between this correlation function and the spectrum of squeezing, which permits the study of squeezed states in the time domain. We calculate the spectrum of squeezing from the master equation for the reduced density matrix using both the quantum-regression theorem and quantum trajectories. Our calculations not only show that spontaneous emission degrades the squeezing signal, they also point to the dynamical processes that cause this degradation. © 2001 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 270.0270, 270.6570, 270.2500.