Cavity QED: Vacuum Rabi Splitting & Jaynes-Cummings

In the Jaynes-Cummings model, a two-level atom couples to a single cavity mode with strength g. The vacuum Rabi splitting 2g lifts the dressed-state degeneracy — even with zero photons, the atom-cavity coupling shifts the energy levels. The resulting Rabi oscillations between |e,0⟩ and |g,1⟩ are a hallmark of strong coupling cavity QED, visible in both time evolution and transmission spectra.

Rabi oscillations & cavity dynamics
Transmission spectrum
Coupling g: 0.30
Cavity decay κ: 0.05
Atom decay γ: 0.02
Detuning Δ: 0.00
Strong coupling: g > (κ,γ). Vacuum Rabi splitting = 2g at zero detuning. Tune κ to see collapse from strong → weak coupling.